This promise to the captive Israelites in Babylon reached farther than their return to Palestine after seventy years. That return of the nation of Israel to their land did not result in a permanently reformed worship and morality as predicted here. In fact, their spiritual condition worsened, and they finally nailed the Son of God to the cross.
The promise reaches to a better day coming, which has already begun, when God’s people will be “eager to be completely faithful.“
Eze 11:14-21
A Promise of Hope…
The word of the LORD came unto me, saying, “Ezekiel” son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the LORD: unto us is this land given in possession.
Therefore say, thus said the Lord GOD; although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.
Therefore say, thus said the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh. That they may walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
But as for them whose heart walk after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, said the Lord GOD.
