Poetic Justice

God has a sense of humor. If He didn't, He wouldn't have been able to give us a sense of humor, also. 

I see humor when I read about Jacob, and again when I read about Haman.

As Jacob deceived his father Isaac to give him the blessing Isaac intended for Esau (Genesis 27:1-29), so now Jacob is deceived by his Uncle Laban, who tricked him into marrying Leah instead of Rachel (Genesis 29:20-26). 

The Book of Esther tells us about Haman who was King Ahasuerus' right-hand-man, and wanted everyone to bow down to him. When Mordecai wouldn't, Haman decided to sentence him to death and built a 75 foot high gallows to hang him on. But he didn't want to just kill this one man, he wanted to destroy his whole nation. 

When the king found out about his plan, he hanged Haman on his own gallows that he'd built for Mordecai, and Mordecai was promoted into the position Haman had had. 

What we call Poetic Justice is the kind of joke God likes to play on people, either to judge them or to teach them something. Haman He judged; Jacob He taught how to live his life closer to God, and even received a new name, Israel.

Every time I hear about how someone received "poetic justice," I wonder if God is judging that person or if He is dealing with him/her as a son/daughter to teach them some important lesson.

Proverbs 26: 27 says that, He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone, it will come back on him.

This is about trying to harm someone. The one who digs a pit in order to trap someone in it will himself be trapped by it, and the one who is positioning a stone to hit someone with it will find himself the victim of it's weight. You get the idea. Whenever we want to get back at someone, or just be mean or play a dangerous trick, watch out or you may just be the brunt of the joke. It could easily backfire on you, and you'll find yourself in the predicament you intended to put the other one in, while he gets the benefit you wanted.

Poetic Justice happens more often that you may think. This seems to be God's kind of humor, and He will display it whenever He sees a good opportunity.

How much better life is when we learn to love one another, instead of trying to trick one another. Humor is good when we can get a good laugh over some good thing that unexpectedly happened, or an impossible picture, like a huge log stuck in someone's eye. But let's stay away from anything that would be uncharitable or insulting or dangerous.

So keep laughing over what is honestly funny, and realize that God likes to laugh, too.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!