Excerpts from “Holy Laughter! Humor in the Bible”

The Original Superman!

Did Samson Wear an “S” on His Belt?

Judges Chapters 13-17

Besides his great strength, Samson had a bit

of a wit and a flair for poetics. Like Muhammad Ali

with his “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee”.

Samson’s Riddle in Judges 14:14 (NASB):

“Out of the eater came something to eat, And out of

the strong came something sweet.” An unsolvable

riddle, unless you knew the carcass of a lion

Samson killed housed a bunch of bees and their

honey.

After the Philistines coerced his wife into

making him reveal the answer, Samson derides

them in Judges 14:18 (NASB): “If you had not

plowed with my heifer, You would not have found

out my riddle.” He calls his wife a heifer and then

wonders why his father-in-law thinks he doesn’t

like her.

And what about Delilah? In Judges 16:1-22,

Delilah pesters Samson for the secret of his

strength. As soon as Samson tells her something,

she tries it to no avail. Thus, she’s trying to use

whatever he says to destroy him. In verse 15

(NKJV), she has the gall to say: “How can you say,

‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You

have mocked me these three times and have not told

me where your great strength lies.” Crazy thing is,

he finally tells her! Who would’ve thought a

haircut could be a hero’s “Kryptonite”?

What kind of suitcase

robs Samson of his powers?

… Samsonite.


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Having Mustered My Beliefs,

I Relish the Faith I Have

Matthew 17:20 (NKJV):

So Jesus said to them,

“Because of your unbelief;

for assuredly, I say to you,

if you have faith as a mustard seed,

you will say to this mountain,

‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move;

and nothing will be impossible for you.

My pastor said to be saved, all I need is the

faith of a mustard seed; and that’s great, because, I

believe in mustard. I believe it goes well with

ketchup and tastes good on hot dogs and burgers.

He talks so much about mustard, because he

worked at McDonald’s to get through seminary.

When you have a problem, he says: “Let’s McPray.”

He makes Communion a Happy Meal.

And he Super-Sizes his sermons.

Having the faith of a mustard seed

doesn’t mean you should act

like a holy hot dog.

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Something Old & Something New.
What are your favorites from the book?

I like "For Sale: One Tomb; Slightly Used",
"The Ultimate Movie Trailer!",
and the various one-liners scattered throughout.

And to give you a way and means of witnessing
to those you love as unobtrusively as possible,
I put the Gospel in the closing section.

Share the joy of the Lord with those you love today!

Blessings & Joy,
Dean