the prophet Elijah. During the his toric contest with the priests of Baal in the time when the land had been destitute of water, the people, in cluding King Ahab, had turned from God. There seemed to be no possible divine intervention from the certain destruction of the drought. There on Mount Carmel the worshippers of Baal would attempt to call down fire to devour the sacrifice they had pre pared to their wicked gods. Elijah was prepared too, armed with un swerving faith. The priests went all through their weird incantations, but nothing happened. Baal was obvious ly silent. Not even a flicker of flame appeared. So Elijah, in justifiable derision shouted out, “Why don’t you call a little louder? Maybe Baal’s sleeping or perhaps he’s even gone on a vacation.” Say what you will, there is something funny about this ridiculous scene of man’s vain and absurd idolatry, replacing the wor ship of the one true God. Over in the New Testament, in the 12th chapter of the gospel of Luke, we find another story, repeated in actual life so often today. Here was a man who had everything to live with, but nothing to live for. His problem was that he didn’t know what to do with all of his money and goods, a problem so many would like to have. He hit on a happy solu tion in that he decided to tear down his old facilities, for after all he could get a tax deduction on them, and build new ones. The trouble was that the very night he made his decision, the death angel came to call. While the world would write his epitaph in the one word, “Success,” God said, “Thou fool.” The divine comedy concludes with the inexorable compelling hand of death claiming him when God declared: “This night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” In more recent history, a worldly- brilliant French philosopher by the
caused you to smile, thinking of the absolute absurdity of the situation. Here is a man who would dare to say that God is dead. How hollow the mockery! Verse four of the Second Psalm takes us into a new area of under standing. The prophet rightly re veals, “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision.” To say that God is up in heaven laughing at man comes like a dash of ice water thrown in the face. In preparation for these messages, I had to pause and won der, thinking that perhaps there might have been a translator’s mis take. Would God actually laugh at man? Yet, in the original language, this is exactly what is stated. You see, the only basis we have for com parison is in a thought of how we laugh at each other. Sometimes it can be rather merciless, and without any spirit of love whatsoever. This is obviously not the case with the Lord. We have to rule this out right at the start. God does not laugh at man’s in firmities. He doesn’t laugh at the ignorance of man, He does not laugh at our iniquities. He sees nothing to joke about in the sins of mankind. (How unlike today’s popular televi sion comedians He is!) Our blessed Saviour, of whom this speaks, one night sat on a hill overlooking the beloved city of Jerusalem. There He saw the infirmities, ignorance and iniquities of God’s chosen people. Scripture tells us that He physically wept! The fact of the matter is that God is heart-broken over the iniquity, unrighteousness and sinfulness of all mankind. He is not laughing at any of these things. What then is the cause for the Lord’s derision? We know from the Bible that God laughs at such things as our idolatries. Think of the fool ish things we worship instead of Him! In the Old Testament, one of my favorite stories concerns that of 8
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