36:20. And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned My holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of His land.—Wherever these fleshly-minded Christians shall be scattered, they will blaspheme God's holy name, with the reproach that though they had claimed to be Jehovah's people, God had been unable to safeguard them and they had abandoned all pretense of being Christians.
36:21. But I had pity for Mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.—But God will have regard for the prestige of His reputation for justice, power, love and wisdom, which the apostate of Christendom shall impugn during the revolutionary order of things.
36:22. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for Mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.—Therefore Jehovah says that what He is about to do, He will not do for their sakes, for they deserve nothing at His hand but the judgments justly visited upon them; but that He will do it for His holy name's reputation, which they have persistently misrepresented and blasphemed.
36:23. And I will sanctify My great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.—God will make His name sacred, and forever hallowed, among the pagan peoples, the name which apostate Christians have profaned and defamed among them; and God will make the infidel peoples to [pg 548] know of a certainty that He is the all-wise, just, loving and almighty Jehovah, when He finally converts all such to true Christianity.
36:24. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.—God will save His professed people from the faithless, unbelieving condition of the revolutionists and the professedly pagan peoples, and will gather them out of all the evil conditions into which they shall fall, into a condition of genuine conversion and consecration to Himself. How much like God! all will exclaim, who know Jehovah. What an example does the Father set to His children, the sons of God!—Eph. 5:1; Z. '92-63.
36:25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.—Then will Jehovah wash His apostate people with the pure, unpolluted water of the Word of Truth; and from all their filthiness of flesh and spirit, of life and of doctrine, and from their idolatry of Molech and of Baal, will He cleanse them; and they shall be clean.—A. 333; Z. '92-64.
36:26. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.—God judges the thoughts and intents of the heart, and He will give His professed people a pure heart to serve Him and to love Him with fullness of consecration. He will take away from them the stony heart (Jer. 31:33), wherewith for sake of earthly emoluments and honor of men, they have resisted Him and hardened their consciences against His Truth. He will put within them a new spirit which they have not known—the spirit of willing service and obedience to Jehovah, the spirit of the truth, the spirit of wisdom, of courage, of a sound mind, and of Divine love.—2 Tim. 1:7; Z. '99-187; A. 310; Z. '03-171.
36:27. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.—God will give them His Holy Spirit and cause them to walk in His “royal law of love” (Jas. 2:8), so that they shall keep that law and do it—Z. '99-138.
36:28. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God.—And they shall abide in the condition of Divine favor that the fathers walked in, and truly be God's people; and Jehovah, the God of love—not Molech, nor Baal—shall be their God.
36:29. I will also save you from all your uncleanness: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay [pg 549]no famine upon you.—God will save the people now constituting His professed, but apostate church, from all their spiritual and fleshly uncleanness. He will call for the wheat, the bread of life, the Word of God, and will give them to feed on this good Word, and will permit no more famine of the Word of God among them.