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 The Last Word By Ole Anthony, with Skippy R. Issue #208, November/December 2006
"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." Hours later, after rearranging the attic, emptying out all the closets, dumping the Legos on the floor and rummaging through all our filing cabinets, we gave up on gathering our wits about us and got down to work. Our manifesto, "Satire, a flat tire and cold pancakes," appeared as The Last Word # 157 in our January/ February 1998 issue. There was a lot in it about humor in the Bible, God's laughter and a bunch of other stuff. But since then I've discovered the meaning of a Hebrew word that adds a new twist to the discussion. (It's all part of my lifelong continuing education program). In fact, just last week I was reading a familiar passage, Isaiah 28:11, "For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people, To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear." Historically this refers to the invading Assyrians, whose strange language was to be a sign to Israel of their chastisement. But in looking up the word la'egh, translated as "stammering," I had a surprise. An alternate meaning was "mocking." "With mocking lips I speak to this people?" Is God mocking us? Has He been making fun of all our harebrained schemes, selfish pouting, petty complaints and misguided desires all these years? Apparently so. In Psalm 2:4 we find God "who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision." The "them" is us, when we allow our minds to take us away from the "rest" that Isaiah mentions. We see the same thing again in Proverbs 1:26: "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh." What's really going on is that we seem to always walk right into a constant barrage of derision that God is directing toward the devil. We know this is happening when we find ourselves becoming self-important, watching our plans fall apart and struggling to fix them, trying to justify ourselves by blaming someone else, lying to cover our tracks, acting like we're in on a joke because we're embarrassed to ask someone what's going on and then resenting it, etc., etc. You know the feeling. You can find this mocking going on all through the Bible. The Israelites had a nickname for the god that the Canaanites worshipped. They called him Beelzebub (Ba'al Zevuv), which means "lord of the flies," because it sounded like Ba'al Zevul, or "Baal the exalted," one of the titles for Baal. And don't forget Elijah mocking the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18:26-29: "You'll have to shout louder," he scoffed, "for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or he is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or he is asleep and needs to be wakened!" Uh... this might not go over so well in this day and time. What if someone gets offended? Christ's apostles asked him a similar question, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?" (Matthew 15:12). Jesus replied, "Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind" (Matthew 15:14). We have the choice of resisting this mocking, being offended by it or joining in. It actually signifies what our true identity is. I found an interesting article at www.biblicalhorizons.com (not all our research is in theological libraries) that explains how our Halloween customs grew out of a desire to mock pagan superstitions. Not only that, it turns out gargoyles on medieval churches had the same purpose. "They symbolized the church ridiculing the enemy. They stick out their tongues and make faces at those who would assault the church." Gargoyles represent believers ridiculing the defeated demonic army. In fact, Martin Luther picked the day he posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg chapel to correspond to this whole mocking idea. It was on All Hallows' Eve, which became Reformation Day. Which brings us back to the business at hand. Why do we do what we do? Answer: If we can laugh at ourselves, the devil has no foothold. In The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis, Screwtape is instructing his underling Wormwood on how best to tempt his human charge into spiritual pride: "Catch him at the moment he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, 'By Jove! I'm being humble,' and almost immediately pride—pride at his own humility—will appear. "If he wakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt—and so on, through as many stages as you please. But don't try this too long, for fear you awake his sense of humour and proportion, in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to bed." A sense of humor and proportion. Thank God if you've got one. We'll mock you if you don't. And, please, do the same for us. "The devil... the proud spirit.. cannot endure to be mocked." —Thomas More.
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