I believe with all my heart that God has some sense of humor.
Most Bible scholars also share this view too. I don’t think God is a mean looking old man, with a rod on His hand. I believe He is a fun God to be with; and I believe He loves making things fun so that we enjoy life to the fullest.
Some of the stories I read in the Bible are very funny, at least for me.
When it comes to praying to God to look “marvelously spiritual,” I was very good at it. And God usually answers them all.
Precious, I prayed those prayers and I stopped! I now don’t pray like, “I will never stop worshiping You,” or “I will die for You if needs be,” or “Send me to ISIS to testify for Your Name” blah, blah, blah kind of prayers. God hears our prayers and He loves answering them all, including those funny ones.
Jephthah prayed this prayer when he was about to go out to fight with the Ammonites: “And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” (Judges 11:30-31)
I’m not sure what Jephthah was thinking when he was praying or making this vow. I think maybe he was thinking of one of his cows or sheep or camels to come out. I said that because it says, “I will sacrifice “it”.” He didn’t say, “I will sacrifice her or him.”
Well, Jephthah won the war and when he came home, guess who came out to meet him? If you know the story, you may say “His daughter.”
Well listen what the Bible says: “When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter.” (Judges 11:34)
Jephthah’s only daughter came out! Jephthah had no child except one, his only daughter.
Well, a lot can be said about this passage related to Jesus being God’s only Son but I leave you with two things I learned from it (knowing that this passage too is written to teach us something):
- When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you know one of those days you feel like you are very close to be taken up by God’s chariots of fire, don’t ask God anything. Just devour His presence with thanksgiving. Jephthah, before he made his vow, listen what the Bible says: “Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah.”
(Judges 11:29) And on verse 30, he made a vow. - And when you stand before God for a prayer, don’t concentrate on what you can do for God but how you can make yourself available to His will. Make your words few as King Solomon said,
“Do not be quick with your mouth
do not be hasty in your heart
to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
and you are on earth,
so let your words be few . . . When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow.” Ecclesiastes 5:2, 4 ///