Ezekiel 37:15

"The word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, And thou, son of man, take the one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions; and join them for thee one to another into one stick, that they become one in thy hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not show unto us what thou meanest by these? Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions; and I will put them with it, even the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand."

ORACLE OF THE TWO JOINED STICKS

This was an enacted oracle, a kind of parable, in which the ultimate union of the two nations of ancient Israel was foretold. Ezekiel evidently prepared these two sticks and then united them in the presence of the people, who were of course accustomed to this type of symbolical behavior on the part of Ezekiel. This led to the question they immediately asked him.

We are not told how Ezekiel did this, whether by interlocking notches held together by cords, or by some kind of cement. No kind of miraculous joining of the sticks is indicated in the text.

The meaning of the oracle is clear enough. It foretold the eventual reunion of Ephraim and Judah, the Northern Israel and the Southern Israel, Samaria and Jerusalem under one king, thus healing the long breach that had begun in the days of Rehoboam who succeeded Solomon.

"Judah and the children of Israel his companions ... and Ephraim and the tribes of Israel his companions ..." (Ezekiel 37:16,19). It is significant here that God through Ezekiel did not recognize Ephraim as "the Israel of God," a title that Ephraim had arrogantly usurped for themselves. He appeared here in his true status as Ephraim with whom certain tribes of Israel were associated. Judah, through whom the great Davidic king would come, was always the true center of the ancient Israel, not Ephraim.

"Joseph cannot alone represent the Northern kingdom, so `the tribes associated with him' are also mentioned in the inscription on his stick, thus reserving the name `Israel' for the whole people of God."[13] It is also significant, in this connection, that, `In the hand of Ephraim,' (Ezekiel 37:19) indicates that certain tribes were controlled by Ephraim; but the oracle of the united two sticks points out that they shall not remain in the hand of Ephraim, because they are, "contrasted with `mine hand' (Ezekiel 37:19), that is, the hand of God."[14]