The Ravishing of Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:1-2).
We have already noted that Zechariah would see Jerusalem as symbolising the whole people of God. Indeed in Zechariah 2:7 he describes God's people in Babylon as ‘Zion'. Thus in the light of Jesus' words in John 4:20-24, and in the light of the New Testament description of the true Jerusalem as being a heavenly Jerusalem, although incorporating God's people on earth (Galatians 4:21-31), we are justified in seeing in Zechariah's reference to Jerusalem an indication that he is speaking of God's people worldwide, the true worshippers of YHWH (John 4:24).
‘Behold, a day of YHWH comes when your spoil will be divided in your midst, for I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished, and half of the city will go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people will not be cut off from the city.'
‘A day of YHWH comes.' A ‘day of YHWH' occurs when God steps in to bring about His purposes. It is a phrase occurring often in the Old Testament and does not always mean that the final days are in mind. God has His day regularly through history. In Isaiah 13, for example, where the ‘day of YHWH' is emphasised (Isaiah 13:6; Isaiah 13:9; Isaiah 13:13), what is being described is the destruction of Babylon by the Medes (Zechariah 14:17 with Zechariah 14:19) which took place in the days of Daniel the prophet (Daniel 5:30-31). God had His day against Babylon. Here it is the ‘day' in which the peoples of the world reveal their enmity against God and God acts against them. This was future for Zechariah, but it is not necessarily future to us.
This description of the ravishing of Jerusalem certainly reminds us of the taking of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 AD with an army made up of many nations. Rome certainly represented a multiplicity of nations. And when Jerusalem was taken the spoils were divided up, houses were rifled and women were ravished. And large numbers were taken into captivity. Others remained to partially restore the wrecked city. But it was equally true of other invasions of Jerusalem, each in itself a reminder of the judgment of a holy God on an unholy people. Thus it is best to see in this a picture of the world's opposition to the people of God.
‘And half of the city will go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people will not be cut off from the city.' We are not here talking about exact fractions. The point is that a good proportion will be taken into captivity, with a reasonable proportion left behind. Some would still remain in the city. And that this must have been so in 70 AD comes out in subsequent history. But it is far more likely that this intended to represent the fact that, in the face of the world's opposition, a proportion of God's people will suffer excessively, with others finding life more normal.
That such a fall of Jerusalem was in the will of God is declared by Jesus in Mark 13; Matthew 24; Luke 21. It was foreshadowed in Daniel 9:26. And in Daniel 9:26 it is preceded by the cutting off of the Anointed One (Messiah). And it came about in 70 AD.
But the main point of these verses is not that, it is that the people of God will continually face devastating treatment at the hands of the nations. We may see this as partly fulfilled in the activities of Antiochus Epiphanes against the loyal Jews of his day. Then there was wholesale persecution, and large numbers of death and rapes. And the same was true of the history of the early church, commencing in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1 ff.), and going on in the continual persecutions that followed (Acts 14:22; Romans 8:35-36; 1Th 3:3-4; 2 Thessalonians 1:5; 2Ti 3:12; 1 Peter 4:12-14; 1 Peter 5:10), and especially as revealed in Revelation 2:9-10; Revelation 2:13; and on through Revelation. The people of God would experience tremendous buffetings. We may consider the vivid description in Revelation 20:9, ‘and they (the nations) went up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints, and the beloved city', where God's people would be under worldwide attack.