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.