Ezekiel 36

A Message of Hope

Although the Israelites were put to shame in the eyes of all the surrounding nations, the Lord said, in Ezekiel 36, that He allowed them to be shamed as a testimony that He will not allow His people to mock Him and the covenants they made with Him. Ezekiel 36 contains a promise that—as a testimony to the world that He is the only true and living God—the Lord would gather a future generation of Israelites back to their land and to their covenant relationship with Him. He promised that He would wash them clean from their iniquities and give them a “new heart” and a “new spirit” (see v. 26), and that, unlike the many years before Ezekiel’s time, they would keep the Lord’s commandments.