Celebrating Victory!

On facebook, many have posted that we should not be celebrating the fact that Bin Laden was killed. Many have suggested that we should be upset and disturbed that a soul was now eternally separated from our Lord.

We can confuse a celebration over a victory won from a battle with evil with that of the loss of a life. I personally am not celebrating the loss of Bin Laden's life, but am celebrating victory over evil.

In Scripture God commanded the Israelites to celebrate and never forget the Passover. There were many lives lost during the Passover. God was not commanding the Israelites to celebrate the loss of lives, but to celebrate the victory over darkness. To celebrate deliverance. To celebrate freedom in Him. The Israelites were not focused on the Egyptians that had died, but rather had their eyes fixed on God instead. That is as it should be. If they focused on any deaths, it was the deaths of their own people they remembered.

I believe what many are celebrating in this nation is very similar to what the Israelites celebrate during Passover. We are remembering the innocent lives that have been lost and are celebrating that they now have victory.

Scripture has proven, hearts can harden and remain hard. Pharaoh's heart was hardened and never did soften. This resulted in the loss of lives of many Egyptians, not only in the Passover itself, but following when they pursued the Israelites and died in the Red Sea.

God on another time commanded King Saul to "Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys" in 1 Sam 15:3. He knew the people had evil in their hearts and would not ever come to Him. He did not want the Israelites to celebrate the loss of the Amalekites lives, but rather rejoice in the victory He brought them.

Scripture gives us examples of God's grace on the Israelites over and over again. Yet it also shows us times when He commanded an entire people destroyed, such as the Amelekites.

Bin Laden was given choices like the rest of us. We all can turn away from evil or we can follow it. Bin Laden's choice was to follow it; to harden his heart. Not only were lives lost in our nation at the hand of this man, but many lives of his own people were lost because of him.

As a follower of Christ, it is hard to reconcile in our hearts those that choose to follow evil instead of Him. True victory comes in belief in Christ.

So should we rejoice in Bin Laden's death? I believe we should rejoice in victory over evil. Bin Laden was similar to Hitler, who oddly enough died on May 1, 66 years ago. Coincidence?; Perhaps, but God moves in mysterious ways. By His grace, we no longer are witnessing someone get off free who had such evil and violence in his heart that he was willing to destroy nations, and even his own people. The vengeance was God's and we can celebrate that.

We cannot be held responsible for those that choose evil over good. We cannot mourn them either. We cannot mourn the fact that they made their own decisions and while we, along with God would love to see everyone turn to Him, He already knew that was not going to happen before we were all created. He knew the fall of man would come and already had His redemption plan to bring people back to Him all developed and underway. Praise Him for Jesus Christ as His plan for reconciling man to Him, even with all the evil in our hearts.

But not everyone will decide to accept such grace and that is what I mourn. I cannot mourn a man who made the decision not to accept, but I can mourn evil. Evil will still remain on this earth until the final victory is won during those last days and evil is thrown into the fiery Abyss for all eternity. That is one victory that we will ALL celebrate! Even on that final day, in front of the Great White Throne of God, He has the grace to give everyone one last chance. We have an awesome and loving God who is good, faithful and true! Praise Him!