The Lord through His prophet Amos reveals that He does nothing without first revealing His plans to His prophets.

God wants us to know in advance what He is planning to do so that when His plans and purposes come to pass, we know it is God at work. Though Zechariah lived nearly six centuries before Rome demolished Jerusalem and the Temple, God foretold their destruction through him. He also prophesied that there would great internal strife among the Jews at that same time.

All this trouble DID come to pass just as God said it would.

Though this trouble did come upon God's people, God did NOT reject His people forever. Israel IS FOREVER. Jerusalem IS the location of God's earthly throne. It is the place from which Jesus will reign throughout the millennia.

The reason for their destruction and dispersal throughout the nations was not necessarily willful sin (as it had been when Assyria and Babylon took them into captivity), but the refusal to be gathered to God through His Messiah Jesus.