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“As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezekiel 33:11).
As I write this, I am in London, England for a few days. Today we had a few hours of free time, so we went to a museum which we had never visited before. One section of it was rather gruesome, for it showed how they used to execute criminals many years ago. In England, this was done by hanging most of the time, which was often carried out in public. (The last public hanging in England was in 1868.) Crowds of people used to come to watch someone being hanged, and it seems that most of the time the crowd applauded, for they felt that bad people should be properly punished for their crimes. People could be hanged for many different crimes, including murder, stealing, forgery, treason, poaching, and pickpocketing.
Our God is a God of judgment, and He cannot pass over sin, no matter how small. However, we see from our verse that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Rather the grace and love of God has provided a way for Him to forgive the sinner, if the sinner will accept Christ. And when God carries out judgment, He does not enjoy it, as did the crowds in years gone by. In another Scripture God calls it His strange work.
God is light, and we make Him a Judge by our sins, but He is also love, and no one has made Him like this.
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