Is it thought that God relishes the idea of punishment as men do?
Is it thought that he 'whips' them sufficiently till they eventually expire?
Men would call this justice yet it sounds very strange to me that a One who is prepared to give his life for sinners is now turning the heat up deliberately so they perish.
The Lord doesn't "relish" to see the punishment of mankind, and that is why He did and does all He can to help us avoid it. Mankind reaps what they sow. He has created creation in such a way that when people live contrary to God's ways consequences happen, which the Lord allows in His sovereignty and wisdom in hopes they will turn to Him, like when He gave permission to Satan to afflict Job. When people by their own sins and iniquities open the door to the devil and demons, well those entities come only to steal, kill and destroy. Just let's open our eyes and look at this world........there has been plenty "punishment" going on all through history and still going on. God has provided the only help and protection and comfort there is against evil and wrath......His Son Jesus the Christ....but when people reject Him what more can be done? The lost world is always happy to believe and accept anything except Christ and the truth, for such is the depth of perverseness and how sin warps the soul. The "hour of trial" that will test the whole world will be of mankind's own making. And if the earth moans and groans under the weight of sin, we have to realize that even natural disasters are because of the sin of man too. And it seems from scripture that there will be natural disasters on a cosmic scale in the end, along with the evil that man is doing. Since all power belongs to God, to Him belongs all the glory, not to the devil or to man.
David in one of the Psalms acknowledged that the Lord was right and just to afflict him. The Lord judges righteously, we need to know and acknowledge that His judgments are just and right.
Psa 119:75
I know, O LORD,
that thy judgments are right,
and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.
And this lovely passage below lets us know what our attitude needs to be, not one of accusing Him of unrighteousness but one of humility and humbling ourselves under His mighty hand (turning our cheek to the One who strikes us) that in due time He might lift us up.
Lam 3:25-40
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.
Let him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;
Let him put his mouth in the dust—
There may yet be hope.
Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
And be full of reproach.
For the Lord will not cast off forever.
Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
For He does not afflict willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.
To crush under one’s feet
All the prisoners of the earth,
To turn aside the justice due a man
Before the face of the Most High,
Or subvert a man in his cause—
The Lord does not approve.
Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass,
When the Lord has not commanded it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That woe and well-being proceed?
Why should a living man complain,
A man for the punishment of his sins?
Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the LORD;