Our Adult Sunday School class is examining the three parts that make up the Scriptures: Creation, Fall, and Redemption. We have just entered the point in the Genesis narrative where Satan appears in the Garden of Eden and directs his seductive words at our first parents, Adam and Eve. I want to split Satan’s temptation into two parts: the Laugh and the Lie, in order that you and I can be better prepared for his continual attacks in our lives. We’ll explore the Laugh today and move on to the Lie on Friday.
THE LAUGH
The “laugh” is located in Genesis 3:1, the first recorded question in Scripture: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” It is as if Satan is laughing, mocking God in the question he asks Eve. He is not asking Eve to confirm that God actually said what He said; rather, the serpent seems to be asking, “Was God really so foolish as to say such a thing?”
Satan was not denying what God said; he was sneering at what God said. And this, my friend, is the spirit of this age. The Word of God is held up to such ridicule in so many quarters, those who believe it are laughed at and mocked. Listen to some of the laughing of the lost:
“You don’t really believe a man spent three days and nights in the belly of a great fish and was spit out on the shore alive do you?”
“You’re not serious about the parting of the Red Sea and the Israelites walking across on dry land are you?”
“Surely you don’t believe Noah spent more than 100 years building a boat in the middle of dry ground and then proceeded to get two of every kind of animal to join him for the first recorded cruise . . . do you?”
“Do you mean to tell me you actually believe the walls of Jericho—if there even was such a place—came tumbling down because people walked around the city for a week, blew some horns, and yelled at the top of their lungs?”
What we need to remember is the fact that there is nothing “cutting edge” about mocking and laughing at the truth claims of the Bible and the Christian faith. That tired act goes all the way back to the Garden!
Nobody likes to be ridiculed for what they believe. Nobody likes to be the object of scoffing and scorn. In fact, so deep is our fear of being mocked, whenever we hear people laughing when we are in the same area we immediately wonder if it is directed at us! Let me give you a great nugget of comfort: you wouldn’t care what others thought of you if you realized how little they did!
What we need to remember about the laughing of the lost is that our God is in control of all things—and that includes the laughing of the lost!
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. (Psalm 2:4)
But you, O Lord, laugh at them; you hold all the nations in derision. (Psalm 59:8)
In the process of God making all things new, He is also making all things right, and in the end He will be the one laughing. When we are on the receiving end of the laughing of the lost, we need to lift them to the throne of grace and pray that God would give them eyes to see, ears to hear, minds to understand, and hearts to beat for the glory of the King.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 