11/23/76
A. Definition.
1. Laughter is a means to convey mirth, satisfaction, or derision by facial expression and explosive or chuckling sounds from the throat.
2. There is also a silent laughter which is an expression of the eyes.
3. There is the concept of “laughing up one’s sleeve,” which is to laugh privately or secretly while appearing to be grave or serious.
4. Technically, laughter is defined as a mode of expressing mirth, consisting chiefly in certain convulsive and partly involuntary actions of the muscles of respiration, by means of which, after inspiration, there is the expulsion of air from the diaphragm in a series of jerks, producing a short, abrupt successive sounds, accompanied by certain movements of the muscles of the face and often of other parts of the body including excessive tears.
5. Laughter is noise, excited by humor or sudden merriment or pleasure.
6. Laughter is also a reaction to someone or something expressing scorn, derision, sarcasm, or ridicule.
7. In the Bible, laughter is both the expression of the mature believer and the reversionist.
8. Laughter is both the true expression of happiness and an expression of pseudo-happiness.
9. Laughter is used in Scripture as an anthropopathism for God.
B. Laughter is used to mock those who reject Bible doctrine, Prov 1:24-29. Doctrine mocks when discipline comes to the reversionist, but doctrine will not answer because they hated its knowledge.
C. Laughter is the expression of humor from a mature believer, Gen 17:17. Abraham laughed in his right lobe as an ultra supergrace believer at the thought of having a son by Sarah. The relaxed mental attitude of maturity indicates a good sense of humor. This indicates the capacity for life of a mature believer. Abraham’s laughter is faith breaking through the barriers of hopelessness.
D. Laughter and Bad Manners.
1. When you laugh at others because of their dress, or because they are uncomfortable, or because some disaster has overtaken them, this is an evil form of laughter.
2. In Gen 18:10-14, Sarah laughed when she overheard the Lord talking to Abraham about his coming sexual prosperity.
E. Laughter is associated with happiness, Lk 6:21b.
1. The mature believer’s attitude toward the reversionist is also expressed in laughter, Ps 52:5-7.
2. The mature believer’s attitude toward adversity is expressed in laughter. Job 5:17-22, “You will laugh at violent death and famine when it comes.” This is a laugh of confidence, security, and blessing from inner resources of Bible doctrine. It expresses a relaxed mental attitude.
3. Laughter expresses the right mental attitude of the mature believer in combat. Job 41:26-29, “The sword that reaches him cannot prevail, nor the spear, nor the dart, nor the javelin. He regards iron as straw, bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot cause him to flee; sling stones are turned into stubble for him. Battle clubs are regarded as stubble, and he laughs at the rattling of the javelins.”
4. Job 8:19-21, “He [the Lord] will fill your lips with shouting.”
F. Laughter is also related to pseudo-happiness, Prov 14:12-14. “There is a way [evil] which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death [sin unto death]. Even in laughter the right lobe may be in pain, and the end of joy is grief. The backslider of heart will have his fill of his own ways, but a mature believer will be satisfied from inside of himself.”
1. Jas 4:8-9, “Come near to God [daily metabolization of doctrine] and He will come near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners [rebound]; cleanse your right lobes from the pollution of evil. Be miserable and lament and weep; your laughter will be turned to grief, your happiness to dejection.”
2. Eccl 2:1-2, “I said of laughter, `It is madness.’” Solomon as a reversionist was just as miserable both before and after a few laughs.
3. Luke 6:25, “Woe to you who would laugh now, you shall mourn and weep.”
G. Laughter expresses ridicule, Ps 80:6. “You [God] make us a strife to our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves.”
1. People laughing because of ridicule express lack of thoughtfulness and capacity for life.
2. In Mt 9:24, people laughed at Christ when He said the girl was not dead. Cf. Mk 5:40; Lk 8:53.
3. In 2 Chron 30:10, Hezekiah sent messengers to invite the Jews to celebrate the Passover, “but they laughed them to scorn.”
H. Laughter expresses the happiness of restored Israel at the time of the Millennium, Ps 126:1-3.
I. Laughter is used to express an anthropopathism.
1. In Ps 2:4, God laughs at reversionistic revolutions.
2. In Ps 37:12-13, God laughs at reversionistic conspiracy against mature believers.
3. In Ps 59:8, God laughs at negative nations while He continues controlling history.
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R. B. Thieme, Jr. Bible Ministries 5139 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77056 (713) 621-3740
© 1997, by R. B. Thieme, Jr. All rights reserved.
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