Bathroom Humor in the Bible

One of the goals of this podcast is to get you interested and excited about God’s word. The Bible is important to our everyday life…when we submit or REALLY listen to God’s word it puts our heart and attitude in the right place to go throughout our day no matter what happens. God’s word is living and active, it’s powerful, as we’ve talked about before!

But today, I want to remind us that God’s has a sense of humor and we can find that when we look at details of the Bible. In fact, Hudson, my 8-year-old, found something he thought was super funny in the Bible the other day that made him laugh. Do you think it’s okay to laugh at something in the Bible? It is! I think God loves when we laugh and I think He especially loves when we are reading His word with enough attention to realize when something is funny!

Okay, so Hudson was reading in 1 Samuel 24 and this is where David is being chased by Saul because Saul wants to kill him. Listen to what it says and see if you can find the funny parts… “Saul returned from chasing the Philistines. Then he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” So, Saul took 3,000 of the best soldiers from the whole nation of Israel. He started out to look for David and his men. He planned to look near the Rocky Cliffs of the Wild Goats. He came to some sheep pens along the way. A cave was there. Saul went in to go to the toilet. David and his men were far back in the cave. David’s men said, “This is the day the Lord told you about. He said to you, ‘I will hand your enemy over to you. Then you can deal with him as you want to.’” So David came up close to Saul without being seen and he cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.” That’s 1 Samuel 24:1-4.

Did you find anything sort of funny about that? First of all, I should say, there was nothing funny about this situation because Saul was trying to kill David and David was hiding for his life! Yikes!

But here’s what’s funny….if you are in to bathroom humor, which most kids are, right?! Saul has to use the toilet, he has to go to the bathroom. And it just so happens that he chooses to use a cave where David and his men are hiding. PU!!

And Hudson pointed out that Saul must’ve gone #2 if he was in there long enough for David and his men to discuss what was happening AND for David to sneak up and cut a corner of his robe off.

What in the world!? HAHA! Can you imagine? Have you ever snuck up on someone going to the bathroom? I wouldn’t recommend it. Stinky!!!

Anyway, this goes to show that when we pay attention to the details of God’s word - when we listen and really think about the details of what we are reading then it comes alive to us! These aren’t just made up stories! They are real life! And sometimes real life can be a little bit funny and make us laugh.

Okay, here are some questions to talk about. You can pause after each question to discuss. And, like always…don’t overthink it! The point is to get conversation flowing:

1. What did you find funny about that story with David and Saul?
2. Why do you think God would include funny details like that in the Bible?
3. Can you think of other funny stories or situations in the Bible?

Let’s try and learn our verse together. You can repeat after me. “Saul went in to go to the toilet. David and his men were far back in the cave.” 2 Samuel 24:3b