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Three facts concerning such.

I. THEY ARE CAPABLE OF PERPETRATING THE GREATEST ENORMITIES ON THEIR FELLOW MEN. In the account given by Josephus of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans we have a record of enormities at which we might stand aghast. The particulars, says Dr. Wardlaw, here noted are such as usually, it might be said, invariably attend the besieging, the capture, and the sacking of cities; especially when, as in this case, the assailing army has been exasperated by a long, harassing, and wasting defence. The entrance of the unpitying soldiery, the rifling of houses, the violation of women, the indiscriminate massacre, and the division of the spoil, are just what all expect, and what require no comment. And never were such scenes more frightfully realised than at the destruction of Jerusalem when God in His providence in judicial retribution gathered all nations against the devoted, city to battle. "All nations," a correct description of the army of Titus, the empire of Rome embracing a large proportion of the then known world, and this army consisting of soldiers of all the different nations which composed it. And, while such was to be the destruction brought upon "the city," the desolation was to extend, and that in different ways, at short intervals, throughout "the land." The fact that men are capable of perpetrating on their fellow men such enormities show —

1. Man's apostasy from the laws of his spiritual nature.

2. The great work which the Gospel has to do in our world.

II. THAT WHATEVER ENORMITIES THEY PERPETRATE, THEY ARE EVERMORE INSTRUMENTS IN THE HANDS OF THE WORLD'S GREAT RULER. The period in which these abominations were enacted is in the text called the "day of the Lord," and He is represented as calling the Roman armies to the work. "I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished." God in His retributive procedure punishes the bad by the bad. In this case —

1. No injustice is done. The men of Jerusalem deserved their fate. They "filled up the measure of their iniquity."

2. There is no infringement of free agency. Good men might revolt from inflicting such enormities upon their fellow creatures, but it is according to the wish of bad men. This is God's retributive method, to punish the bad by the bad.

III. THOUGH INSTRUMENTS IN HIS HANDS, GOD WILL PUNISH THEM FOR ALL THEIR DEEDS OF ENORMITY. But where is the justice of punishing men whom He employs to execute His own will? Two facts will answer this question.

1. What they did was essentially bad.

2. What they did was in accord with their own wills.He never inspired them or constrained them. He did but use them.

(Homilist.)

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KJV: Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

WEB: Behold, a day of Yahweh comes, when your spoil will be divided in your midst.