No Pleasure over the Wicked

Yesterday I wrote how we sometimes find satisfaction in the difficulty of those who are our adversaries, and that this is really a sign that we are trying to justify our own hard hearts.  We might be tempted to think that the Lord Himself gets some kind of satisfaction for the punishments He brings upon the wicked because there are so many scriptures that speak of the punishments the rebellious receive.  For example, after the destruction among the Nephites and Lamanites, the Lord declared what He had done to the various cities that had been destroyed.  For example, He told the people, “And behold, the city of Laman, and the city of Josh, and the city of Gad, and the city of Kishkumen, have I caused to be burned with fire, and the inhabitants thereof, because of their wickedness in casting out the prophets” (3 Nephi 9:10).  Nephi also testified how the Lord “destroyeth the nations of the wicked” and that “the wicked he destroyeth, and curseth the land unto them for their sakes” (1 Nephi 17:37-38).  Examples such as Sodom and Gomorrah, Jerusalem at the time of Zedekiah, or the ten tribes who were taken over by the Assyrians show that the Lord will destroy the wicked when they are fully ripe.  But several scriptures help us see that though this punishment comes upon those who might be considered the enemies of the Lord, He gets no enjoyment or satisfaction from that punishment.  The suffering of the wicked comes only because “justice cannot be denied” (Jacob 6:10) and not because the Lord wants them to suffer.     

               Ezekiel gave us some insight into the Lord’s thoughts around the time that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians because of the wickedness of the Jews there.  The prophet gave us these words of the Lord: “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?... For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye” (Ezekiel 18:23, 32).  God does not get any satisfaction or pleasure from the sufferings or deaths of those who are punished because of their wickedness.  He wants us to live, not die.  The Lord told Ezekiel in another chapter, “Say unto them, 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: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11)  There is no pleasure in the Lord to see His enemies suffer, but that punishment must take place because of the laws of justice.  We see this even more vividly in Enoch’s vision of the Lord who mourned the wickedness and future death of the wicked in these turns: “But behold, their sins shall be upon the heads of their fathers; Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer? But behold, these which thine eyes are upon shall perish in the floods; and behold, I will shut them up; a prison have I prepared for them” (Moses 7:37-38).  The heavens weep because the wicked must suffer for their wickedness; heaven finds no pleasure in it but yearns for the wicked to repent so that, as the Savior put it, “they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:16).  The Lord has no motivation for us to suffer more than justice requires; rather, He is constantly urging us to turn away from our ways of wickedness, and that is an example for us to follow in our own interactions with our own adversaries.