The following quote is taken from evilbible.com:
"God Assists Rape
and Plunder - "Lo, a day shall come for the Lord when the spoils shall
be divided in your midst. And I will gather all the nations against
Jerusalem for battle: the city shall be taken, houses plundered, women ravished; half of the city shall
go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be removed from the city."
(Zechariah 14:1-2 NAB)
You can read Zechariah chapter 14 here:
The
book of Zechariah is one of the books of prophecy in the Hebrew scriptures (Old
Testament). In chapter 14, the final
chapter of the book, there is a prophecy concerning the great tribulation of
Israel during the time near the end of the world. During this tribulation, there will be great
suffering. The description is of a
conquered Jerusalem, with houses plundered and women raped, and half of the
people exiled.
Keeping
in mind that this is a description of future events, we must consider the
question posed by evilbible.com: Is God assisting nations to attack Jerusalem,
or is he allowing these things to happen?
The reality is that God has given human beings free will, and human
beings use their free will to commit acts of evil (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans
3:23). Sometimes God allows it, but he
does not approve of it.
This
is evidenced in the verses that come directly after the passage that
evilbible.com quoted above. Shortly
after the description of Jerusalem being conquered, God defeats those who
conquered them: "Then the Lord will go out and
fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle" (Zechariah
14:3, NIV). The rest of the chapter goes
on to describe the nations that plundered and raped being defeated, and
stricken by plague. The survivors of
those nations will worship God, who will reign over the entire world, and
Jerusalem will never be attacked or destroyed again (Zechariah 14:3-21).
God
does not ignore evil. He responds to it,
and a day will come when every person will have to give an account to him for
the evil acts they have committed (Matthew 12:36; Romans 14:10-12; Hebrews
4:13; 1 Peter 4:5; Revelation 20:11-15).
