We were looking at the second half of Jeremiah 1 on Sunday. One of the things we saw whilst we were there is that God loves a dad joke. I suppose he isn't called the Father for nothing. But he specifically enjoys a pun and offers one to Jeremiah. Anyone who groans at Dad jokes and bad puns needs to remember God sanctions those jokes and makes them himself in his word (which means you probably have to laugh).
The specific pun in Jeremiah 1 is a bit of word play.
The Hebrew word for almond tree is saqed. But the Hebrew word to watch over something is soqed. God is making a pun on the almond tree Jeremiah is looking at and what he is doing with his word: you see saqed [an almond tree] and soqed [watching] is what God is doing with his word. An Englishy version would be God showing someone a pear tree then telling them I am pre-PEARING my Word to go out. A thoroughgoing dad joke.
The pun is a bit cleverer than that because the words saqed and soqed come from the same root meaning 'to be awake' (or, if you're inclined, 'woke'). The word for almond tree literally means 'the awake' or 'the woke' tree. It was known as 'the watching tree'. The almond tree was awake, watching for spring, and marked the point at which spring had sprung. God is saying, just like the awake tree that watches for the flourishing of spring, I am awake and watching over my Word so that it will flourish. All through the medium of a little pun.
As we were thinking through this passage again at our midweek bible study, my son - who enjoyed the fact that God likes a pun - suggested this must be the oldest pun known to man. But, of course, it isn't. The Old Testament is full of little puns like this. There are some buried in the story of Eli in 1 Samuel 2 (check out the words kabed and kabod and how they function in respect to Eli making himself fat and yet not honouring the Lord).
Judges is full of them too. The fact that the big fat king Eglon's name literally means 'bull' which, on top of making him sound fat, also points to Ehud's mission is to slaughter him. We also find Samson loves a bit of wordplay in Judges. Think about the 'heaps upon heaps' in the donkey jawbone episode (a weapon of ass destruction, perhaps?) Or there is his little riddle full of wordplay that adorns tin of golden syrup to this day. But there are plenty of examples in Judges of wordplay on the names of places, people and clever nods to what unexpected rescuers will do. All often emphasised through a pun or bit of dad-like wordplay.
But there are others even earlier than that. Genesis, for example, has a whole raft of little word plays and puns going on right the way through - a lot riffing on the names of people and places - but its very **ahem** punny. There is wordplay in the first few chapters riffing on the names of Adam, Eve and their task in the garden. There is a bit of punnery surrounding the name of Abram/Abraham and what God will do for him. The Old Testament has puns aplenty.
That means God loves a pun and enjoys a dad joke here and there. His word is littered with them. So, next time you think to groan at a pun or dad joke, remember that God himself sanctions them because he makes them himself in his Word. If God loves a pun, and even writes them into his Word, we should probably groan a little less.
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