When you are in great distress and all these things have happened to you in later times, then you will return to Jehovah your God and listen to his voice.

~Deuteronomy 4:30

Jehovah knew that eventually the Israelites’ descendants would lose faith in him and be ‘scattered among the peoples,’ (De. 4:27).

There, they would offend him when they fell into the practice of idol worshiping (De. 4:28).

But he would not forsake them.

“If you search for Jehovah your God from there, you will certainly find him, if you inquire for him with all your heart and with all your soul. […] For Jehovah your God is a merciful God. He will not desert you or bring you to ruin or forget the covenant that he swore to your forefathers,” (De. 4:29, 31).

Within the congregation, this may apply to those who either in the past or future commit serious sins against Jehovah and break the pact they made with him upon baptism.

What recourse do they have when later on in life they find themselves alone and in trouble?

God himself extends the following invitation:

“[…] If you return to me and observe my commandments and obey them, though your dispersed people should be at the end of the heavens, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place that I have chosen to have my name reside,” (Ne. 1:9).

The congregation doors are still open “and he will not turn his face away from you if you return to him,” (2 Ch. 30:9).