David Reagan — God Laughing
Have you ever wondered why God does not intervene in world affairs and do something about the increasing violence and immorality? Do you get hot under the collar as you witness world leaders thumb their nose at God and His Word? Would you be surprised to know that the Bible says that God sits in Heaven and laughs at those who are rebelling against them? Is it because He does not care? Not at all? Why then does He laugh? Stay tuned.
While all this is taking place, you know what God’s doing? He is sitting in Heaven, laughing. Laughing not because He doesn’t care, but laughing because He has it all under control. Look at what it says here in Psalm 2, beginning with verse 4. “He who sits in the heavens laughs.”
God is sitting there laughing! He laughs at the two-bit dictators like Castro. He laughs, “The Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury. But as for Me I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.” God is sitting in the heavens, laughing.
I have to remind myself all the time, He’s laughing because He has the wisdom and the power to orchestrate all the evil of mankind to the triumph of His Son. It doesn’t matter what happens. He’s laughing for three reasons. The first reason He’s laughing. Look at it. The Lord scoffs at them. The Lord scoffs at them. That is the first reason he’s laughing.
You know what it says in the Hebrew? Literally it says He has them in derision. Let me give you an example of how He has them in derision. Let’s take the example of Israel. One of Satan’s greatest accomplishments was to orchestrate the world to come to the battlefield of World War I. Horrible war. Absolutely horrible. Wiped out an entire generation of Europeans.
For years they sat in those trenches. No one had the power to break open the war. The war would move a hundred yards that way, back a hundred yards, forward a hundred yards, back a hundred yards. More people died of trench diseases than they died of being killed by bullets or explosions in the war. It was a horrible war. Satan was sitting on the sidelines, laughing. He had had one of his greatest victories, this carnage, this killing.
And yet, what happened? Out of World War I came the Balfour Declaration, which never would have been possible without that war. The Balfour Declaration. Because the Germans had an ally and their ally was the Ottoman Turks, and when the Germans lost the war the Ottoman Turks lost the war, and therefore the ottoman empire was divided up just as the German Empire was, and part of that was Palestine. And the British said, “We’re gonna make it a homeland for the Jewish people.”
World War I prepared the land for the people, but the people did not come back in large numbers. By 1900 there were only 40,000. After the Balfour Declaration only a trickle came back. They had become acculturated. They had become acclimated to the culture of Europe and they would not go back. Even when Herzl kept saying there’s a holocaust on the horizon, we are not acclimated, the people are going to turn against us, they still could not believe it until it occurred.
Satan got his second great victory. World War II and the Holocaust that was a part of that war. But you know what God did? He used World War II and he used the Holocaust to prepare the people for the land because when that war was over and that Holocaust was over, the Jews came out of that war saying, “never again, never again, never again. We’re not ever gonna live another Hitler. We’re gonna have our own nation, our own state, or our own land, our own government.”
And they began to flood back to Israel. 800,000 by the end of World War II. 5.5 Million today. Within a short time they will have as many in that land as died in the holocaust. God used World War I to prepare the land for the people, World War II to prepare the people for the land. Satan’s got to be the most frustrated character on planet earth.
No matter what he throws at the Lord, the Lord just throws it back into his face. That’s why Psalm 76:10 says “the wrath of man shall praise you.” It doesn’t matter what man throws at God, what Satan throws at God. God will take it and just throw it right back and use it to His honor and His glory and to the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ.
The wrath of man shall praise you. Well, we come to a second reason that God sits in the Heavens and laughs. First He sits in the Heavens and laughs because he has them in derision. Second, He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in his fury. The second reason God sits in the Heavens and laughs is because God has appointed a day of judgment.
A terrible, terrible day of judgment. When He will poor out His wrath upon those who have rejected the grace, mercy and love of God. One thing about God you must keep in mind, and that is that even when He pours out His wrath, even when He pours out His wrath, His fundamental purpose is never to punish, His fundamental purpose is to bring people to repentance, so they might be saved. Even in the midst of the Great Tribulation, many people will be brought to the end of themselves and will accept Yeshua as their Messiah.
What a glorious God we have. But God has made it very clear, a day of judgment is coming. Look at these scriptures that indicate this. Acts 17, the sermon of Paul in Athens, “therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all, everywhere should repent. Because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.
God has appointed a day, and the scriptures affirm this over and over. Nahum 1:2, “A jealous and avenging God is the Lord, the Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger,” praise God, “and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” You should think of this anytime you become discouraged as you look at this world and wonder if righteousness will ever prevail. Yes, one day it will prevail, when the Lord Jesus Christ breaks from the Heavens.
You may never live to see it prevail but it’s gonna prevail because Jesus is coming and He’s bringing peace, righteousness and justice with Him. There’s another one, look at this one in Isaiah 2:10, “Enter the rock, hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty. The proud look of man will be abased, the loftiness of man will be humbled, the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty…”
A day of reckoning has been appointed. God alone knows what it is, but it has been appointed, and it will come. Or, consider this, Zephaniah 1, that entire book of Zephaniah is about one thing, the day of the Lord’s wrath. And it says, “Near is the great day of the Lord. A day of wrath is that day, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom. I will bring distress on men so that they will walk like the blind because they have sinned against the Lord.
They will reel about like a blind man, the wrath of God will be so great upon them.” There was a third reason that God sits in the Heavens and laughs. First He sits there and laughs because He has them in derision, second because He’s appointed a day of judgment. Number three, “As for Me, I have installed my King upon Zion, My holy mountain.” He has made a promise to His Son Jesus Christ that one day he will reign over all the world and the world will be flooded with peace, righteousness and justice as the waters cover the sea.
I want you to notice something about this promise. Notice, it’s very strange. Very strange. This promise was made 3,000 years ago. It has yet to be fulfilled, yet it’s in the past tense. It’s in the past tense, as if it had already occurred! Why would God make a promise that’s not gonna be fulfilled for thousands of years, and put it in the past tense? Did you know that most of the time in the Old Testament when God speaks directly, He speaks in the past tense about things that are going to happen in the future?
It is so common that theologians have come up with a word for it. It’s called a proleptic statement. It’s a Latin statement. It’s a future event that is described as if it has already happened. Why does God do that? Why does He describe future events as if they’ve already happened? We’re told in Isaiah 37:26, “Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass.” You see, God is not in time. If you want to visualize time, take a piece of paper, draw a line on the piece of paper, put a dot on the line. That’s the present, future, past. God’s not on the line. God is outside the line. God sees the beginning of the line.
He sees the middle of the line. He sees the end of the line. He’s not in time. And therefore, when God wills something, As far as He’s concerned, it’s done. As far as He’s concerned, it’s accomplished. It may not have happened in time yet, but when He wills it, it’s done. Therefore, He presents it in the past tense. He does this over and over and over. Let me give you an example.
When was Jesus Christ crucified? You say, “Well, He was crucified 2,000 years ago, outside the city of Jerusalem.” That’s not what the Bible says. The Bible says that He was crucified from the foundations of the earth. Why? Because God willed it. It didn’t happen in history until 2,000 years ago, but God willed it from the foundations of the earth and as far as God was concerned, it was accomplished. Very interesting. God sits in the Heavens and laughs. Let’s review. This Psalm begins with a prophet lamenting, asking God some rhetorical questions.
It proceeds with man, with his fist lifted up, scoffing at God. It reveals God laughing because He has the wisdom and power to orchestrate all the evil of Satan and Mankind to the triumph of His Son. Let’s continue. Psalm 2, beginning with verse 7, Jesus appears, and Jesus in a pre-incarnate appearance here makes a statement. “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, ‘you are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance. You will break them with a rod of iron.
You will shatter them like earthenware.’” Jesus making a proclamation. And what is that proclamation? It is the fulfillment of verse 6. Verse 6, God said, “My Son will reign.” Jesus comes and says, “today, God the father made the promise to me that I one day I am going to reign, all the nations will be my inheritance, I will break them with a rod of iron, I will shatter them like earthenware.”
What a promise. What a glorious, glorious promise. It’s a promise about a future event that we often refer to as the Millennium because it’s an event that’s going to last for a thousand years. An event that I can hardly wait for, because the earth is gonna be flooded with peace, righteousness and justice during this glorious time. What a time this is going to be.
God made this promise thousands of years ago to His Son, and one day it’s going to be fulfilled. The earth is gonna be flooded with peace, righteousness, and justice as the waters cover the sea. And I can just hardly wait for it to happen. Here is a picture, a picture of the Millennial Reign. This picture was painted in 1820 by Edward Hicks. And I don’t know how well you can see it, but in the background it shows the pilgrims and the Indians living together in perfect peace. In the foreground it shows all of the animal kingdom, natural enemies of each other, all living together in peace. It shows little children playing with very violent animals because they are no longer violent.
Isaiah says a little child will lead a lion. It says a little child will play in the hole of a cobra because the cobra will no longer be poisonous. This is the Peaceable KIngdom, as seen by Edward Hicks in 1820. Now let’s take a look at this kingdom for a moment. First of all, it’s going to be worldwide in scope. Look at Isaiah 9. “A child will be born to us,” that’s the First Coming. Then we jump to the Second Coming, “a Son will be given to us, and the government will rest on His shoulders and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”
Is there any doubt this is going to be God in the flesh? “There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom.” You know when this crazy book The DaVinci Code came out and he made the assertion in there that nobody ever thought, no Christians ever thought that Jesus was divine until the Council of Nissea in 325 A.D. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.
The first thing I thought of was this particular passage that was written by the prophets a thousand years before Jesus came, saying He is going to be God in the flesh. This is not some Johnnycome-lately idea, the Old Testament is full of passages that talk about how the Messiah is going to be God in the flesh. It’s going to be a worldwide kingdom. This is affirmed, for example, in Daniel 7, “I kept looking in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven, one like a Son of Man,” this is the Messiah, “was coming and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.”
This is a vision, a dream, of Daniel. “And to him was given,” to the Messiah, “dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. Every nation will serve Him. Or, consider this in Micah 4:1, “And it will come about in the last days.that the mountain of the house of the Lord,” mountain here is used symbolically to refer to a kingdom, “the kingdom of the Lord,” will be established as the chief of all the kingdoms.
And many nations will come and say ‘come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob that He may teach us about His ways, and that we may walk in His paths.” Over and over the scriptures teach this is going to be a worldwide kingdom. Well, let’s consider for a moment the fact that it’s going to be a theocratic kingdom. A theocratic kingdom. Look what it says there in Psalm 2, verse 9. “You will break them with a rod of iron; You will shatter them like earthenware.”
Let me tell you something, this is not gonna be some namby-pamby, wishy-washy ruler. He’s not gonna make a decision and have some political party come and lean on Him or some lobbyist come and lean on Him and He makes a different decision. This is going to be a theocratic reign, he will reign absolutely. He will reign with a rod of iron. A rod of iron. That’s the reason the earth is gonna be flooded with peace, righteousness and justice. Look at Revelation 19:15, it affirms this, “And from His mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it He may smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.”
Always a theocratic kingdom. I love it, I can hardly wait for it. You know why? This is gonna be the Book of the world. The Book of the world. Every teacher on planet earth is gonna be a person in a glorified body and they’re gonna teach mathematics out of here. They’re gonna teach history out of here. They’re gonna teach geography out of here. They’re gonna teach everything you can imagine out of here. And there will be no one there to say “separation of church and state” because there will be no separation of church and state, praise God!
It’s all gonna be one! Or, consider the results of the reign, Isaiah 2:4. “He will judge between the nations, He will render decisions for many peoples. They will hammer their swords into plowshares.” Oh how we’ve dreamed of that. Can you imagine a world in which not one dime is used for instruments of war, but everything is used for implements of agriculture? There will be no homeless people, no hungry people. What a great world it will be. “Spears will be turned into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.”
Isaiah 11, look at this, these are the things we’ve always wanted of a government, “With righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be the belt around His loins and faithfulness will be the belt around His waist.”
What a glorious time this is going to be. And look at the impact of nature. I love this. Isaiah 11, beginning with verse 6. “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion, the fatling together. And the little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear with graze, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.”
All of nature is going to be returned to its original perfection because when God originally created this universe there was no such thing as poison animals, no such thing as meat-eating animals, no such thing as poisonous plants of any kind. All that was a result of the curse. The curse is going to be lifted. And the creation is going to return to what it was. You know, one time I was preaching on this and my wife was with me, she doesn’t get to come with me very often, but she was there. This was early in the ministry, in probably ’82, ’83.
And I got to preaching about, I had a whole section I was preaching about the reconciliation of nature and the reconciliation of nature to man, and I really got carried away. I waxed eloquent. And I said, “I’ll tell you one of the most important reasons that I want Jesus Christ to come back is because the one thing I hate the most on planet earth is chiggers! I hate ‘em with a passion!”
Those watching who live in northern areas probably don’t know what a chigger is. A chigger is a tiny, little, I think it’s a mite, a little, tiny thing about the size of a pinhead, a little red thing. It crawls up your legs and it bites in all the most tender places and the big welts form and you itch and you hurt for days- I hate ‘em with a passion! They’re the scourge of the south! And I said, “when Jesus comes back, He’s gonna do away with the chiggers, praise God!” Well, as we were traveling home that night, my wife was very quiet.
If you know her, you know she doesn’t say much, but when she says something you better listen. I turned to her and I said, “Is something wrong?” She said, “I couldn’t believe what you said about the chiggers tonight.” I said, “Yeah, I guess I got a little carried away.” She said, “Oh no, that’s not the point at all.” She said, “You were wrong, what you said about the chiggers.” I said, “What do you mean I was wrong?” She said “you were wrong!” I said, “What do you mean?”
She said, “Honey, I’ve got news for you. Jesus is not gonna do away with the chiggers, He’s gonna make you lie down with the chiggers!” Well, all I can say is I hope He de-fangs those little bugs first of all before He does that. And I’m sure He’s going to. Here is, look what else. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountains, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
Here’s my favorite picture of the Peaceable Kingdom. We featured it on the front of our magazine one time. This is the southwestern version, the southwestern version. I mean, you’ve got the skunk and the porcupine, and you’ve got the armadillo, and all of them. A little boy lying down on a wolf, the wolf next to the lamb. Everybody living together in perfect peace and harmony. I can hardly wait for the Lord to come and that to happen. Well, let’s review.
Begins with the prophet lamenting, proceeds with man scoffing, God laughs, Jesus suddenly enters the scene and makes a great proclamation. And then as we get to the end of this glorious poem, the Third Person of the Trinity appears. The Holy Spirit issues a warning. The Holy Spirit issues a warning. Let’s take a look for a moment at the warning that the Holy Spirit issues. Let’s go to verse 10. “Now, therefore O’ kings, show discernment. Take warning O’ judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling, do homage to the Son lest He become angry and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all those who take refuge in Him.”
Now, the first thing that I need to point out here, is that yes, this is addressed to kings and judges, no doubt, to those who are in ruling authority. But it is also addressed to believers. It’s addressed to you and me. I want to emphasize that. Because, when the Lord Jesus Christ returns, we will be the kings. We will be the rulers. We will be the judges. Every person in a position of authority on planet earth will be a person in a glorified body. That’s why the earth’s gonna be flooded with peace, righteousness, and justice.
Reigning authority. 2 Timothy 2:12, “If we endure, we will reign with Him.” Judging authority, 1 Corinthians 6:2, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” We are going to reign with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are going to judge the world, we are going to be the ones who are going to reign with Him over this earth. He is going to reign from Jerusalem as King of kings and Lord OF Lords. David in his glorified body is going to reign as the King of Israel. We, in our glorified bodies, are gonna be scattered over this earth to reign over those who are in the flesh. Every person in a position of reigning authority will be a person in a glorified body.
Most of us, perhaps, or some of us anyway, are going to be administrators. Every person who is an administrator on planet earth, whether it’s a local council, a state council, a national council, whether it’s a king, a prime minister, a mayor, a governor, is going to be a person in a glorified body. Jesus said there’s gonna be degrees of reward. He said there’s gonna be degrees of reward, based upon your service in the Kingdom now. How you use your gifts to advance the Kingdom. He said, “some of you I will put over one city, some I’ll put over five cities, some I’ll put over ten cities.” So some of us will be administrators. Some of us will be judges.
I believe that every judge on planet earth will be a person in a glorified body. That’s the reason the earth is gonna be flooded with peace, righteousness and justice is because, under this theocratic reign of Jesus Christ, when a person violates the law, a person in the flesh, violates the law, they will be arrested immediately. They will be taken before a judge. There will be an immediate trial. There will be an immediate judgment. And there will be no appeal whatsoever because that judge with the glorified body and the mind of Christ will make a perfect decision for which there will be no appeal. Justice will be swift. Justice will be certain.
And that’s the reason that those in the flesh who reject Jesus Christ during this time will nonetheless obey the law. They will say, “we love you Jesus,” while they are grinding their teeth. And at the end of that time when Satan is let loose, what’s gonna happen? He’s gonna say to those in the flesh, “come on, let’s get the joker in Jerusalem.”
And after one thousand years of perfect peace, righteousness and justice, the vast majority of those in the flesh will rebel against Jesus Christ. And God will prove once and for all you cannot change anyone by putting them in a perfect environment. The only way you can change people is through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. He starts out history proving that in the Garden of Eden. He ends up history putting everybody in that Garden of Eden and proving it once again, when the great rebellion occurs.
Thirdly, the vast majority of us are gonna be teachers. I believe every person on planet earth, Jeremiah says we’re gonna be the shepherds of the earth. We’ll be in glorified bodies teaching those who are in fleshly bodies. Trying to bring them to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I’ll tell you something there will not be, praise God there will not be! There will not be any legislators during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
There will be no abomination, no abomination known as the Texas Legislature; no abomination known as the United States Congress; no abomination known as the United Nations; because there will be no legislature! Jesus will give the law. And the law will be obeyed. There will be no political parties; no pressure groups; no bribes. Oh boy, what a glorious day that’s gonna be. What we’ve dreamed about forever and ever.