Does God have a sense of humor?
Scripture does attribute laughter to God, but what the writers bring out is something richer and more layered than what we usually mean by "humor."
God's Laughter — The Sovereign Response to Rebellion
The most prominent passage is Psalm 2:4: "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision." The nations rage, the rulers conspire against the Lord and His Anointed — and God laughs. Not nervously, not in amusement, but in the calm sovereignty of One who sees the utter absurdity of creatures rising up against their Creator.
Frank Hole addresses this precisely:
Frank HoleThe Scriptures do not often represent God as laughing. Three times in the Psalms they do so, and once in Proverbs, and in each case the same thing is in view. If men refuse His mercy, if they maltreat His people, if they lawlessly deny Him and His Anointed, deriding His authority and His Word, they will be judged in due season. And not only judged, but cast down in such a way as to make them supremely ridiculous, the objects of derision to all created intelligences. The "laugh" will be on God's side in that day.
L.M. Grant gives this a vivid illustration:
L.M. GrantWell might the God of heaven and earth laugh at their stupidity! For they are like little children gathering against their national government to tell the authorities, "We are canceling all the laws you have ever enacted and will refuse to obey anything you say." Of course, this would be only laughable, for they have no ability to carry out their schemes. But it is amazing how long God bears with this evil before summarily judging it.
The writer in the Bible Treasury (1897) frames it as a reversal:
Bible TreasuryGod notes his puny efforts and smiles at them all. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision." This is man's day, and too often he does not scruple to laugh and deride, but soon the tables will be reversed.
Divine Irony — Through His Servants and His Providence
God also works through irony. When Elijah stood alone against the 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, he did not simply wait — he taunted. "Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked." A writer in The Christian's Friend captures this:
ironyElijah mocked them (for he knew that gods made with men's hands were only vanity), and by his taunts and irony provoked them to desperation, so that they cut themselves with knives and lancets "till the blood gushed out upon them." It was all in vain, for although they continued their "prophesying" until the time of the evening sacrifice, "there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded."
Samuel Ridout finds the same irony woven into the narrative itself — in the song of Deborah, where Sisera's mother waits at the window for her son's victorious return, not knowing he is already dead at the hands of Jael:
Samuel RidoutLast we have a piece of solemn irony in the description of the mother of Sisera. It reminds us of that awful word, "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord will have them in derision." The derision of Jehovah! awful thought!
"I Also Will Laugh" — Proverbs 1
In Proverbs 1:26, Wisdom personified speaks even more directly: "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes." William Kelly brings out the weight of this:
William KellyHow terrible when Jehovah, patient and long-suffering, laughs at the calamity of those that despised Him, mocks the fears, distress, and anguish of those who mocked Him, and has no answer for their call, nor will He be found, though then sought diligently!
L.M. Grant adds:
L.M. GrantGod has certainly pled with mankind for centuries. If we had been in God's place, would we have been so patient in continuing to plead with rebels? We may therefore well understand that, because men have disbelieved all His counsel and refused His rebukes, that He declares, "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes." What else can we expect under such circumstances?
God's Joy and Delight — The Other Side
But there is a very different dimension to this question — the side of joy and delight. In Proverbs 8, Wisdom (who is Christ) speaks of His eternal relationship with the Father before creation. L.M. Grant writes:
joy and delightCreation's many amazing wonders were accomplished while Christ, the Wisdom of God, was with the Father, as a "Master Craftsman" engaged in bringing all things into being. He was daily God's delight, rejoicing always before Him ... Yet, though God was the first Object of the Lord's rejoicing, He adds, "and My delight was with the sons of men." Wonderful indeed is the grace of His heart! He who is Wisdom personified finds delight in mankind!
Isaac — The Child Named "Laughter"
Perhaps the most suggestive detail of all: when the child of promise was finally born — by divine power, to parents long past the age of nature — God named him Isaac, which means Laughter. Frank Hole writes:
IsaacNow Isaac means Laughter. This further confirms what we have just stated, for Abraham's laughter would hardly have been thus commemorated by God if it had signified doubt and not faith. The covenant of promise was to run in the line of Isaac.
God did not name the child of promise Obedience or Faithfulness — He named him Laughter. That the entire line of blessing flows through a man whose very name means laughter is not accidental.
Drawing the Threads Together
Does God have a sense of humor? Not in the trivial sense of telling jokes. But what Scripture reveals is something far richer. God laughs — at the sheer absurdity of tiny creatures shaking their fists at the Almighty. He employs irony — through His servants like Elijah, and in the very structure of His narratives. He delights — rejoicing before creation, and finding His pleasure in the sons of men. And He named the child through whom all His promises would come Laughter — a name that speaks of the joy that breaks through when God does the impossible.
As Frank Hole puts it, when all man's proud rebellion is finally judged, they will be rendered "supremely ridiculous, the objects of derision to all created intelligences." The laugh will be on God's side in that day. But the deeper truth is that God's joy does not begin with judgment — it was there before the world was, when Wisdom was "daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him."