Anchor Devotional
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Falling on Our Face
“They tell us how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10
Humor is a God-created part of being made in His image. The teacher in Ecclesiastes said there is a time for weeping and a time for laughter (3:4). When you read Jesus’ words in the New Testament and especially His parables, you can’t help noticing irony in them. There is humor in the thought of a camel squeezing through the eye of a needle (see Mark 10:25). I recall laughing as a kid when I heard the story of Dagon, the statue of the Philistine god. It topples (twice!) and falls on its face before the ark of God while it’s stored in his temple.
“The incident of Dagon and the ark would be quite serious if only an expensive statue had got broken. Yet we laugh—knowingly … because we see afresh the glory and supremacy of God in the face of human pride and false worship” (Susanna Baldwin, 2017).
God has used bits of humor throughout the Bible to draw us nearer to Him. In the fallen Dagon story, we see it. For God, in His complete grace, shows us that we ourselves have turned to Him from the idols of our hearts, falling on our faces before Him.
FAVORITE HUMOROUS BIBLE STORY by Kathy Daane, Anchor editor. She and her husband Kevin have known joy and humor in their marriage for 38 years. Their home is often filled with laughter, especially when family and friends are there.
SCRIPTURE FOCUS
Numbers 10-11
INSIGHT
Psalm 66
THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
John 7
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