How God feels when people perish

So often when wicked people perish, we tend to rejoice.  And I can certainly understand it. 

I’ve mentioned this before, but when Osama Bin Ladin died, many people in America rejoiced over it.

But how does God feel when the wicked perish.  I think we catch a glimpse when we see David, someone who God said was a man after his own heart.

When David heard his son Absalom had died, the same Absalom who had hated him, the same Absalom who had tried to usurp the throne from him, it says in verse 33 that David wept, saying,

O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you—O Absalom, my son, my son! (2 Samuel 18:33)

And if you think about it, that was the heart of God. 

God is heart-broken when we, who hate him, we who try to usurp his rightful place in our hearts, die in our sin. 

He is so heart-broken, that 2000 years ago, he came down to this earth and died for us.  He took the punishment that we ourselves deserve in order that we might have life.

Paul wrote,

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  (Romans 5:7-8)

It’s easier for us to understand God dying for someone who’s basically good. 

But the truth is, we are all sinners, deserving hell.  Still, God loved us so much that though we deserved hell, he died so that we wouldn’t have to go there.

How do you feel when the wicked perish?  How do you feel when you see someone who has hurt you hurting?  How do you feel when you see someone who has wronged you suffer? 

May we remember the grace that God has shown us as sinners and have the same attitude towards them that God has towards us.