Ezekiel 36:31

Ezekiel 36:31 says, Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.  God said that when He blessed them materially once more that they would remember their evil ways and loathe how they had acted.  They wouldn't be able to stand the way they had looked before God before when they were not living in accordance with their covenant relationship with Him.  We should never look back on the way we lived before we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord with satisfaction, but we should always look back on that time with disappointment instead.   

Verse thirty-two adds, Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.  God said that He wasn’t restoring the people of Israel for their sakes, or because they deserved it just because of who they were, but was doing so because of His promise to Abraham.  We will never be restored to God because we deserve it, no matter where we may have been born.  God restores us to a right relationship with Him because of His promise of salvation, and it will not be done for our glory but for His.   

Verse thirty-three continues, Thus saith the Lord God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.  God said when He cleansed the people of all their iniquities and not when they did, that He would also cause them to once more live in cities in the promised land.  It is always God Who cleanses us spiritually by the shed blood of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and we can never be restored by our own merit.  

Verse thirty-four concludes, And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.   God said that where the land of Israel had been desolate in the sight of all the people that it was now going to be filled with His people once more.  Even if the world becomes desolate, we as God’s people will be at home in heaven, and all people will see the glory of God, even those who are forever separated from Him.