Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The danger of Abraham's laughter turning into emotion.
Wednesday, May 29, 2002
Some laughs are a spontaneous response to something that happened which was just funny, but here there is thought behind this laughter.
The laugh was a response to both the ritual of circumcision and the doctrine behind the ritual.
Just as ritual without reality is meaningless, laughter without thought is meaningless.
The proper doctrine plus the hopeless situation brings out first his sense of humor; he laughs at himself as he responds with great happiness to God.
He has a fantastic sense of humor and capacity for life.
Divine viewpoint may be overpowering at times, so accept it as a reality through humor.
Humor - an escape valve to take the overpowering thought of Gods blessing in by degrees, 1CO 2:9; EPH 3:20.
Turn to John 18:6
ACT 9:4 and he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
A sense of humor and laughter as its expression is a safety valve for handling awesome thoughts of doctrine.
Qal imperfect - amar = to say + adversative wow Wayo`mer - sets up a contrast between the laughter which was good and the emotional expression which is bad.
GEN 17:18 But said Abraham to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee!”
Abraham was asking that God would also bless Ishmael, and that he would live before God as a believer.
Even though Abraham responded with mature laughter, as long as emotion is subordinate to doctrine resident in the soul, the emotion works fine.
Because emotion has no ability to rationalize, no ability to think logically, the emotion does not have any thinking, or any ability for thought.
When the emotion revolts against the right lobe, as it does just momentarily for Abraham, this is not emotional revolt, but emotional distraction.
Adversative wow -indicates a contrast with the humorous response of the previous verse.
In the previous verse, Abraham laughed, an emotional appreciation of Gods gracious gift.
All Abraham has to do is realize that if Ishmael adjusts to the justice of God, he could live before God, but until he does there is no living before God.
GAL 4:30b For the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.
Instead of being a father to a son, and training and teaching and disciplining, Abraham has become emotionally involved.
MAT 18:1-6, - the way we treat children, whether they are our own or others, is extremely important to God.
Qal imperative - chanak = to initiate or to discipline; to dedicate, developing a thirst or training to submit.
child - na`ar = a boy or a child from the age of infancy to adolescence; servant; young man.
1SA 1:22 - an infant. GEN 21:12 - Ishmael just before he was a teenager. Gen 37 - Joseph at 17. Gen 34 - a child of marriageable age.
In - `al = in keeping with, in cooperation with, in accordance with; according to his way.
If you want your training to be meaningful and wise, observe your child and discover “his way.”
way - derek = in a course of life or mode of action, a direction.
PRO 30:18-19 - derek = a characteristic, his manner.
Children are not a piece of clay to be molded into what we want them to be.
Cain-Abel Jacob-Esau Absalom-Solomon David-Eliab.
Robert R. McLaughlin All Rights Reserved 2002