Animated Faith Zone - Fun & Games -
☞ Riddled with Humor
Riddling is one of the oldest forms of humor, and was quite popular with the Greeks and Hebrews.
Samson told a riddle in the book of Judges.
It has been said that laughter is like medicine. It is also true that Jesus is the Great Physician or the Healer. There are some stories in the Bible that are, well, just funny enough to make you laugh. Sometimes adults feel uncomfortable laughing about the Bible, because they are afraid of not being serious enough about God. God should be taken seriously. But, humans can sometimes be very funny and people in the Bible were definitely human. Here I will include some situations I have found in the Bible where the people did something funny. Go ahead and laugh. I'm just joking. ㋡ I will also include some riddles and other "funnies." So, check back often.
Metonymy - Funny words that make silly pictures in my head.
Metonymy uses a word but intends the meaning of some related word. Metonymy is frequent in the Bible.
☻Jesus told the Pharisees to go talk to a fox. Luke 13:32 Jesus said to, "Go, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons, and I perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be finished. " He called King Herod a fox because he was crafty and sly.
☻A fool has something right inside his eyes. Proverbs 12:15 says, "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes" but, eyes means his way of looking at things. He doesn't have anything in his eyes.
☻If you are sick, Proverbs 12:18 says, "There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health." Here the word tongue is referring to what he says or his words. His tongue won't actually make you healthy. :) Some folks do think a dog's tongue can make you healthy if he licks your sores. Yuck!!
☻Have you ever seen a city walk or get baptised? Matthew 3:5-6 "Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins." This means many of the people of that area believed and were baptised, so many that it seemed like the whole town.
☻Does the devil sit at a table in hell drinking out of a big cup? 1 Corinthians 10:21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. Cup and table represent what the devil has to offer.
☻Gray-Head or Old Man are not good nicknames for your grandpa. But, Leviticus 19:32 says, "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD." This is calling old men gray heads, because they actually have gray hair. It is a command to respect them (not just their face or hair) because of their age and greater amount of wisdom. Wisdom is added each year of your life, and "gray heads" and "wrinkled faces" have lived many years.
☺Has God ever given you a set of keys or laid a key on your shoulder? In Isaiah 22:32 it was said that he laid a key on the shoulder of Eliakim, and in Matthew 16:19 Peter was given the "keys of the Kingdom." This is not real keys, but is a word-picture of the city opening up before Peter for him to carry the Gospel message. Keys are symbolic of authority, permission, or power.
There are many more funny word pictures in the Bible. For many of them you have to look in the Old King James Bible. See how many more you can find, and drop me a line. ☻ Lolol!
☻Jesus told the Pharisees to go talk to a fox. Luke 13:32 Jesus said to, "Go, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons, and I perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be finished. " He called King Herod a fox because he was crafty and sly.
☻A fool has something right inside his eyes. Proverbs 12:15 says, "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes" but, eyes means his way of looking at things. He doesn't have anything in his eyes.
☻If you are sick, Proverbs 12:18 says, "There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health." Here the word tongue is referring to what he says or his words. His tongue won't actually make you healthy. :) Some folks do think a dog's tongue can make you healthy if he licks your sores. Yuck!!
☻Have you ever seen a city walk or get baptised? Matthew 3:5-6 "Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins." This means many of the people of that area believed and were baptised, so many that it seemed like the whole town.
☻Does the devil sit at a table in hell drinking out of a big cup? 1 Corinthians 10:21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. Cup and table represent what the devil has to offer.
☻Gray-Head or Old Man are not good nicknames for your grandpa. But, Leviticus 19:32 says, "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD." This is calling old men gray heads, because they actually have gray hair. It is a command to respect them (not just their face or hair) because of their age and greater amount of wisdom. Wisdom is added each year of your life, and "gray heads" and "wrinkled faces" have lived many years.
☺Has God ever given you a set of keys or laid a key on your shoulder? In Isaiah 22:32 it was said that he laid a key on the shoulder of Eliakim, and in Matthew 16:19 Peter was given the "keys of the Kingdom." This is not real keys, but is a word-picture of the city opening up before Peter for him to carry the Gospel message. Keys are symbolic of authority, permission, or power.
There are many more funny word pictures in the Bible. For many of them you have to look in the Old King James Bible. See how many more you can find, and drop me a line. ☻ Lolol!
A Long-winded Preacher Bores a Kid to Death
Acts 20:9 The Apostle Paul had made journeys through many cities, and was traveling from church to church visiting the Christians as he was getting ready to make a trip to the capital of Rome. There he hoped to preach the Gospel. But, many Christians feared he would be arrested or killed if he went to Rome. So, there was joy in each church to see Paul again, and yet fear about what might happen to him when he got there.
In the city of Troas, Paul preached at one church in an upstairs building until late in the night hours. Light from lanterns poured out through all the windows. The children listened beside their parents quietly as Paul preached on and on into the night. Some of the children got sleepy. Some probably slept in the floor under the seats. But, one boy named Eutychus was sitting in the window where the night air could cool him off, and fell asleep. He fell out of the window and three stories down to the ground where he died. He was brought upstairs to Paul, who picked him up in his arms and told them not to worry because Eutychus was alive again. This was a miracle. But, it is also fnny to think of a preacher preaching for so long that a kid was bored to death. Lucky for Eutychus that Jesus is a miracle working God!
In the city of Troas, Paul preached at one church in an upstairs building until late in the night hours. Light from lanterns poured out through all the windows. The children listened beside their parents quietly as Paul preached on and on into the night. Some of the children got sleepy. Some probably slept in the floor under the seats. But, one boy named Eutychus was sitting in the window where the night air could cool him off, and fell asleep. He fell out of the window and three stories down to the ground where he died. He was brought upstairs to Paul, who picked him up in his arms and told them not to worry because Eutychus was alive again. This was a miracle. But, it is also fnny to think of a preacher preaching for so long that a kid was bored to death. Lucky for Eutychus that Jesus is a miracle working God!
First Recorded Complaint about School Lunches
2 Kings 4:38-41 Kids (and teachers) like to complain about school lunches. But, it usually hurts the cook's feelings if you complain to them. In Elisha's Prophet School, the students were eating lunch, and some of them apparantly got sick. Remember how the custodian brings the pink stuff and throws it on the floor at school? Well, apparantly somebody got sick at Prophet School. The lunchroom lady (or man) had used some poison herbs by accident. When the students tasted it and felt sick, they started complaining to Elisha. Elisha asked the cook for the bag of cornmeal and when she brought it to him, he sprinkled some in the pot. Then he told the cook to serve it to the students to eat. I can just imagine the lunch room lady doing this and saying, "Oh, there's nothing wrong with that soup, Eat it and stop complaining!"
"Yo Mamma!" brought up in a curse and a fight
1 Samuel 15:33 The nation of Israel went to battle with the Amalekites. They had a cruel king who had killed many men. He would take the kings he whipped in battle captive and chop off their big toes and make hostages out of them. You couldn't walk without a big toe, so they couldn't escape very well. Agag, the king of the Amalekites was a terrorist. Many people wanted him dead. Before King Saul of Israel went to battle with bad King Agag, the Prophet Samuel told him that he should take no prisoners in the battle. But, Saul didn't listen to Samuel. After the battle, he decided it would be kind of neat to have such a famous prisoner. Also, he wanted to keep the plunder from the battle.
When Samuel came to see King Saul, and saw the terrorist, King Agag standing there alive, he asked King Saul what was going on. Saul tried to explain that he wanted to keep him hostage. But, Samuel turned to Agag and said, "Your sword has made many women childless, and now I'm going to make your Mamma childless!" Then he drew his sword and executed Agag right there. King Saul and the others were shocked. When Terrorist Agag went around killing men, those men had Mammas, just like the rest of us. Mothers do not want to lose their babies. So, Samuel was pointing out the fact that Agag's Mamma would now have no children. It turns out that Samuel had given King Saul good advice, because we find later that an Amalekite kills King Saul in the end in the final battle of his life. Why do people always have to bring up somebody's Mamma when they get mad?
When Samuel came to see King Saul, and saw the terrorist, King Agag standing there alive, he asked King Saul what was going on. Saul tried to explain that he wanted to keep him hostage. But, Samuel turned to Agag and said, "Your sword has made many women childless, and now I'm going to make your Mamma childless!" Then he drew his sword and executed Agag right there. King Saul and the others were shocked. When Terrorist Agag went around killing men, those men had Mammas, just like the rest of us. Mothers do not want to lose their babies. So, Samuel was pointing out the fact that Agag's Mamma would now have no children. It turns out that Samuel had given King Saul good advice, because we find later that an Amalekite kills King Saul in the end in the final battle of his life. Why do people always have to bring up somebody's Mamma when they get mad?
A Teacher's Prayer
Psalm 144:7, 11 Have you ever tried to drive a teacher crazy? Just a little bit maybe? Many times kids especially enjoy aggravating a substitute teacher. My son Matt told me in third grade that they played a game called "Sink the Sub." If you could behave badly enough that the teacher left the room crying, you won. That is not a good idea in my opinion, but then I am a little prejudiced, since I have taught school for 20 years. :) But, this Psalm sounds like a teacher's prayer to me because in the King James Version of the Bible it says:
Psalms 144:7 Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of
great waters, from the hand of strange children;
Psalms 144:11 Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children,
whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:
The New King James translates the Hebrew words "nekar ben" as foreigners. Nekar means strange or foreign. Ben means sons or children. So, either way is correct. But it sounds funny when you say strange children. It makes it sound like the children are acting strange. It makes it sound like the Psalmist may have been a substitute teacher, doesn't it?
Psalms 144:7 Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of
great waters, from the hand of strange children;
Psalms 144:11 Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children,
whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:
The New King James translates the Hebrew words "nekar ben" as foreigners. Nekar means strange or foreign. Ben means sons or children. So, either way is correct. But it sounds funny when you say strange children. It makes it sound like the children are acting strange. It makes it sound like the Psalmist may have been a substitute teacher, doesn't it?
