Where A Sigh Of Relief Is Misjudged As Mocking The Dead.

Last week, i read some posts fraught with improper interpretations of Proverbs 11:10 by people beclouded by their own judgment, trying to present what the scripture says there as though it's the wicked who shout for joy when the wicked perish. 

Simply comparing Proverbs 11:10 with a similar scripture in Proverbs 29:2 gives us a better understanding 👇🏽

"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn"

If the people mourn while the wicked rules, then it's very easy to understand why Proverbs 11:10 says there's a shout of joy when the wicked perish.

If the life of a ruler is such that brings so much pain to the people such that they lament and mourn while he is in power, it is most natural that they will heave a great sigh of relief when such a ruler dies, and there's absolutely nothing unrighteous about that.

Under the heavy weight of Pharaoh's burdensome rule, the children of Israel groaned in pains of slavery for many years; when finally they were released and Pharaoh with his army perished in the sea, they rejoiced & sang a song of praise to God, celebrating their freedom and the defeat of their oppressors. 

Can we fault and condemn the song of deliverance and victory, which Moses and the children of Israel sang unto the Lord in Exodus 15:1-21 as mocking the dead(Pharaoh & his armies)?

Some might readily say but that's the old testament and quote Luke 9:54-56 which in the common english version reads: 👇🏽 

"And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village."

It is important to note that the text above has an interpolation made by editors and translators between verses 55 & 56, which is not in the original greek lexicon, but my focus here is contextual exegesis.

Prior to now, Peter, James & John had encountered/seen Elijah appear on the mount in verses 28-55, so it's not a surprise seeing James & John confidently asking the Lord in verse 54: "wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did"?

It was Jesus himself who was rejected and not received by the village of the Samaritans he sought to enter to rest, enroute Jerusalem. 

James & John being overly zealous in the fervency they were still basking in, courtesy of the experience on the mount, sought to take vengeance into their own hands, to execute judgment on behalf of the Lord.

The Lord immediately turns and rebukes them and continues on his journey, leading them into another village.

Roman 12:19 says we're not to avenge ourselves for vengeance is the Lord's.

In as much as we are not to take vengeance, which belongs to God, into our own hands, scripture shows that there is a place of wrath. 

When vengeance/wrath comes from God the righteous judge against the wicked who deliberately despise God & refuse to repent unto death, do you think it will be unrighteous for the righteous to rejoice in the righteous judgments of God? Rejoicing not in the destruction of a soul but in God's righteous judgment of curbing the wickedness/evil bound up with the life & existence of such upon the earth.

The problem lies in the inability of many christians to scripturally distinguish between gloating/rejoicing in the death/destruction of the soul of the wicked and the saints rejoicing in the deliverance & righteous judgments of God when his vengeance/wrath comes on the wicked, as an intervention to curb the wickedness/evil bound up with their life & existence upon the earth, in order to save many lives that would be destroyed if they are allowed to continue upon the earth.

In Revelation 18:20, when God's wrath & vengeance finally comes on Babylon, scripture declares thus: "Rejoice over her, heaven, and ye saints and apostles and prophets; for God has avenged you on her."

In view of the judgment of Babylon, Revelation 19:2 speaking of the character of God's judgment says his judgments are righteous and true. 

If his judgments are true and love rejoices in the truth according to 1st Corinthians 13:6, then it follows that love rejoices in God's judgment, so it wouldn't be unrighteous for the holy saints, apostles and prophets to rejoice over her judgment and destruction when God finally avenges their blood on her.

Wisdom in Proverbs 1:26 declares that he will laugh at the calamity of the wicked, who set at nought his counsel.

Job 22:15-20 & Psalms 52:1-7 also show the place of the righteous rejoicing in the judgments/wrath of God when it's executed upon the wicked.

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