I can remember certain times in my life when I was glad someone was dead. I don't say this to boast, but rather to my shame. When dictators fall, when terrorists get nabbed and the good guys win, I can't help but say "The world's a better place." But here is what God says:
""Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?" Ezekiel 33:11
Now, I understand that some will say "He was urging Israel to return to Him," and they would be right, but John 3:16 and 2nd Peter 3:9 expand on this idea, confirming the Lord does not delight when the wicked die:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." John 3:16, 17
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2 Peter 3:9
Yet I cheer in the movies where the bad guy gets it. I revel with my country when an enemy falls. If God takes no pleasure in it, why should I? War, battle, and confronting evil is, sometimes, necessary to remove an evil. It was a tool God Himself used, though scripture confirms that He took no pleasure in it. J.R.R. Tolkien, himself a believer, wrote (through one of his characters, Faramir, in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers):
“War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”
Not scripture, but the sentiment is the same; I love what is protected FROM the wicked, not what is done TO them. I should not (And God is working on me in this last part) revel in the death of the wicked. I should mourn when the wicked die, for there is a soul lost to God forever. There is one who God did not wish to perish, and sent Jesus to die for, who chose himself until his end. Jesus wept over His enemies in Jerusalem. Shouldn't I?
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