The question Israeli believers are now asking: ‘Should we celebrate when the wicked are killed?’

The death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last Friday, while not completely unexpected, still came as a surprise for many in Israel. 

I vividly remember on Friday evening, the teaching had just finished in our local congregation, and as the men were helping set up for the monthly congregational Erev Shabbat dinner (Sabbath evening), there was a low buzz of whispering among the men, “Do you think they got him?” 

Despite many believers preferring not to use cell phones on Shabbat in Israel, the large number of men in the reserves meant that most of them, between the ages of 23 and 45, checked their phones at least once during that evening. 

Gradually, the news started to filter out through local Lebanese news and social media channels, that Hezbollah was trying to determine if Nasrallah was still alive. Then, on Motzei Shabbat (the end of the Sabbath), the IDF confirmed that Nasrallah had, in fact, been killed in the strike on Friday evening, along with several other high-ranking Hezbollah and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leaders. 

For some in the Messianic community, the news immediately raised a question, “Is it right for believers to celebrate when a wicked person dies?” 

In the following piece, I don’t intend to answer that question for any individual person, however, I hope to focus attention on some scriptures that I think will help each of us wrestle with the question of what our response should be when we learn that a wicked, violent enemy of God’s people (both Jews and Christians) has died. 

First, I want to examine the idea that believers should not rejoice at such news, including looking at several verses used to support this position. 

In my conversations with believers in Israel who don’t think it is right to celebrate the death of the wicked, two passages come up more frequently than most others, although there are several verses cited. Those two passages are usually Ezekiel 18:23 and Proverbs 24:17-18. 

Let’s look at both of them briefly. 

“Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares YHVH God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23)

This passage comes in a section in which the people of Israel apparently accepted wrong ideas about God’s justice, believing that He punishes children for the sins of the fathers, or vice versa. 

The chapter contains several powerful statements, including, “Surely all souls are mine. Look, as the soul (life) of the father and the soul (life) of the son, they are mine, the soul that sins, it will die.” (18:4) 

The chapter contains an explanation of how past actions, whether good or bad, can be repented from, with God telling Israel that the person who repents to righteousness will find forgiveness for past sins, while the person who repents (turns) to evil will find past good deeds forgotten. 

The chapter ends with the dramatic statement, “I take no pleasure in anyone’s death, the declaration of YHVH God, so repent and live!” 

However, often forgotten in the passage is God’s statement of justice, that wicked actions deserve death. While God does not want anyone to die without Him, He sometimes brings about their death for reasons of justice. 

The other passage often quoted, is Proverbs 24:17-18: 

“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the LORD see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him.” 

I would like to point out several things. Firstly, the Hebrew Wisdom literature has not historically been viewed by either Christian or Jewish tradition as having the same function as the commands in the Torah or the Gospels. The book of Proverbs even contains contradictory statements, sometimes set next to each other on purpose in order to provoke thinking about wise living. 

Secondly, this passage is talking about a personal enemy, someone you know personally and might even see regularly, who finds himself in a momentary difficult situation. We are warned not to rejoice in this, because his situation could just as suddenly turn around. 

Another passage frequently used is a quotation from one of my favorite passages of scripture, the Sermon on Mount. 

In the Book of Matthew 5:44, Yeshua tells His disciples, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

As in the Proverbs passage, the focus is on personal enemies that you might know and interact with. It is true that persecution in the history of Yeshua’s followers has often resulted in physical violence and death, even from those that the one being persecuted might know personally. But the command does not have in mind a foreign leader intent on the annihilation of your entire ethnic or religious group. 

If we had only these scriptures, we might conclude that this is the end of the discussion, but it’s not. 

There are other scriptures that mention about the wicked dying.

In Proverbs 11:10, in a short section about the differences between the outcome of righteous living and wicked living, comes this verse: “When the righteous thrive, a city rejoices, and when the wicked die, there is joyful shouting.” 

While we are not told who does the joyful shouting, it is not presented as something wrong or unnatural. 

Perhaps even more extreme are several passages in the Psalms which show the righteous rejoicing over the judgment of the wicked. 

Psalm 58:10-11 is perhaps one of the more extreme examples of this, but it is not the only one. 

“The righteous one will rejoice when he sees the retribution; he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. Then people will say, “Yes, there is a reward for the righteous! There is a God who judges on earth! ” 

In another Davidic Psalm, 68, God’s judgment on His enemies is described, and the righteous are said to rejoice. 

“God arises. His enemies scatter, and those who hate Him flee from His presence. As smoke is blown away, so You blow them away. As wax melts before the fire, so the wicked are destroyed before God. But the righteous are glad; they rejoice before God and celebrate with joy.” Psalm 68:1-3 

Later in the Psalm, God tells Israel, “I will bring them back from the depths of the sea so that your foot may wade in blood and your dogs’ tongues may have their share from the enemies.” (Vs. 22-23) 

Clearly, if God is telling his people that he will have them rejoice at the spilled blood of their enemies, such rejoicing cannot be something evil. 

In fact, looking at the Torah, in Deuteronomy 32, at the end of the descriptions of the curses that God will bring on Israel for their disobedience to Him, God predicts that He will act to restore Israel’s faithfulness to Him and He will take vengeance on all the enemies of His people. 

“I will take vengeance on My adversaries and repay those who hate Me. I will make My arrows drunk with blood while My sword devours flesh - the blood of the slain and the captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.”

“Rejoice, you nations, concerning His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants.” (Deuteronomy 32:41-43) 

In the final book of scripture, Revelation, when God brings judgment on Babylon the Great, the ultimate representation of the evil world system turned against the people of God, the command is given, “Rejoice over her, heaven, and you saints, apostles, and prophets, because God has executed your judgment on her!” 

Clearly, the destruction of the ultimate evil empire will involve the death of many humans opposed to the will of God, yet the scripture commands the saints to rejoice. 

I believe that part of our problem is that we sometimes think that God’s attributes are somehow in conflict with one another, as if God’s love and mercy are opposed to His wrath. 

But the long-suffering, merciful savior who came and died while praying for those who killed him will return, according to Isaiah 63, with blood-spattered garments. 

While I believe that it is not good for believers to be overly enthusiastic about the death of the wicked, and I would not participate in the Middle Eastern tradition of handing out sweets to celebrate someone’s death, I do not think that rejoicing in the justice of God is wrong, as long as the focus is on God. 

The question each believer should ask is: “Do I genuinely grieve that a person, created in the image of God, has died without knowing the Savior?” 

However, seeing that the scriptures do encourage, and even command rejoicing at the fall of both Evil and evil people, it is not morally wrong to say, “I am glad that this person will no longer be able to hurt or kill.” In reality, both emotions can coexist at the same time. 

I suggest that what is necessary is to recognize that all justice meted out in this life is incomplete. Only God is able to truly judge the hearts of all men and bring each one to ultimate justice. 

If we are honest, we must also admit that we have received unmerited mercy, and that we also would not want to stand before God bearing the full justice for our own injustice. That humility should keep us from being overly enthusiastic in our celebration of the death of the wicked. 

But we also need to rightly appreciate the weight of injustice as the destruction of God’s good and perfect order. For that reason, justice should be celebrated when it forces us to confront the reality of the human condition and our need for a Savior. We should do so in a sober manner, fully aware of the price of the mercy that spares us from a similar fate.