A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance.

• Job 41:29

The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at you, saying,

• Psalm 52:6

But you laugh at them, Lord; you scoff at all those nations.

• Psalm 59:8

Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

• Psalm 126:2

A feast is made for laughter, wine makes life merry, and money is the answer for everything.

• Ecclesiastes 10:19

But while they are aroused, I will set out a feast for them and make them drunk, so that they shout with laughter— then sleep forever and not awake,” declares the Lord.

• Jeremiah 51:39

In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into enemy hands, there was no one to help her. Her enemies looked at her and laughed at her destruction.

• Lamentation 1:7

I felt the need to have a quiz on laughing, laughter, or just laugh.

I am working a short story for next Wednesday about Joon Yeggs, Pink Lady Apple Yeggs’ adopted Korean son, and he was thinking that no one that worked at Lily the Pink should be sad all the time.  I hope this story about a boy who is almost four years old can be humorous itself, but encourage people who have the Hope in Christ to spread Joy to those around them.

But then, I looked through my records.  I have already had two quizzes about “Laugh.”  But then again, neither of those old quizzes were fill in the blank.

All the verses in this quiz have the word “laugh”, “laughed”, or “laughter.”  A word other than the laugh derivative is missing.  A word list is given in alphabetical order.

The questions are in biblical order.  Two questions are from the New Testament.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Abraham fell ____; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”
2	You will laugh at ____ and famine, and need not fear the wild animals.
3	I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will ____ when calamity overtakes you—
4	She is clothed with ____ and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
5	“Laughter,” I said, “is ____. And what does pleasure accomplish?”
6	a time to ____ and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
7	Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of ____. This too is meaningless.
8	They ____ kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them.
9	Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and ____.
10	They laughed at him, knowing that she was ____.
Word List
Dead, destruction, facedown, fools, madness, mock, mock, strength, weep, weep

There are two words that are the missing word in two of the verses.

Mocking might be laughter, but you are being laughed at.  But is this God mocking those that mock God with their false god worship and their false God worship?  They either mock God by worshipping false gods, or they mock God by going through the mandated festivals and worship ceremonies.  A point was made a couple of days ago in the Bible Study on Amos 8.  When the New Moon festival had begun, they were already asking when will it be over.  As a child, I asked that about a normal worship service – I felt they were so boring for I did not know what we were really doing.

Jesus says in John 4:24 that we should worship in Spirit and in truth.  Regardless of our style of worship, our worship should be done wholeheartedly.

I listened to a new DvD from Gaither recently.  A few of the songs, all Bill and Gloria Gaither songs, were arranged in a particular order.  I was moved to tears by the first one, brought to my knees by the second, and I was weeping by the third one.  I had heard all the songs before.  Was it the order in which they were sung?  Or was the Holy Spirit taking my halfhearted attention on a music video and turning it into a worship moment?

Wherever we are, whatever we do, we should glorify God.  You can worship in Spirit and in truth on Tuesday afternoon at your home.  You can worship in Spirit and in truth on Saturday at a friend’s house.  And yes, you can even worship in Spirit and in truth at church on Sunday morning.

But never let your worship become mockery because your heart was not in it.

But never forget.  God has blessed us with laughter, and laughter is a great way to express Joy.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Abraham fell ____; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”	Genesis 17:17
2	You will laugh at ____ and famine, and need not fear the wild animals.	Job 5:22
3	I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will ____ when calamity overtakes you—	Proverbs 1:26
4	She is clothed with ____ and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.	Proverbs 31:25
5	“Laughter,” I said, “is ____. And what does pleasure accomplish?”	Ecclesiastes 2:2
6	a time to ____ and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,	Ecclesiastes 3:4
7	Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of ____. This too is meaningless.	Ecclesiastes 7:6
8	They ____ kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them.	Habakkuk 1:10
9	Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and ____.	Luke 6:25
10	They laughed at him, knowing that she was ____.	Luke 8:53

The other word that is the missing word for two of the verses is “weep.”

In biblical poetry, one of the methods, making it poetry, is contrasting themes.  Sadness and Happiness are two constructs that contrast.  In parallelism, this is called antithetical parallelism.

God provides rest for the righteous, but the wicked will always look over their shoulder.  Words similar to this are in the book of Proverbs, but this is purely my use of antithetical parallelism.

While God is punishing a nation, laughter turning into weeping is part of it.  They laugh, often due to mockery and arrogance; they weep to know they did it to themselves.

But the opposite is true.  There will be that remnant that returns and their weeping will be turned into laughter.

And eventually, we will live with Jesus in Paradise, where there is no pain, no crying.  In other words, they will not be able to wipe the smile from our faces.

   …

   …

   …

The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Abraham fell ____; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”	Genesis 17:17	facedown
2	You will laugh at ____ and famine, and need not fear the wild animals.	Job 5:22	destruction
3	I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will ____ when calamity overtakes you—	Proverbs 1:26	mock
4	She is clothed with ____ and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.	Proverbs 31:25	strength
5	“Laughter,” I said, “is ____. And what does pleasure accomplish?”	Ecclesiastes 2:2	madness
6	a time to ____ and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,	Ecclesiastes 3:4	weep
7	Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of ____. This too is meaningless.	Ecclesiastes 7:6	fools
8	They ____ kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them.	Habakkuk 1:10	mock
9	Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and ____.	Luke 6:25	weep
10	They laughed at him, knowing that she was ____.	Luke 8:53	dead

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, I hope you laughed.  If not, here is a video when Tim Lovelace joined the Gaither Homecoming crew.  Tim becomes the “fifth” man, joining Jake Hess, Rex Nelon, George Younce, and Willie Wynn singing  The Fourth Man.  Okay, Tim tries to sing it.

Tim Lovelace said he could sing that song forwards and backwards.  He then had a very scary airplane flight and his bragging made him realize he should not lie.  Maybe he was like Newgene Ledbetter for a moment, but he fixed the problem with, Away Fly I’ll.

Here is CeCe Winans, singing I’ve Got Joy.

I’ve got Jesus, so I’ve got Joy.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.