Ezekiel 37:15-19 meaning

Ezekiel 37:15-19 introduces the second half of the chapter, in which the LORD commands Ezekiel to perform a sign-act with two sticks representing the divided kingdoms and announces that He will join them into one, reuniting Judah and Ephraim under a single king. Ezekiel has finished the dry bones prophecy covered in Ezekiel 37:1-14 in which God pronounces with certainty that a time will come when He restores Israel to the land and pours His Spirit into its people.

Ezekiel's immediate audience are the Judean exiles living in Babylon. Ezekiel was deported in the second of three deportations and had lived in Babylon for twelve years at the time of the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem, and a further emptying of people (from among those who survived the siege and conquest) to be exiled to Babylon.

Ezekiel served as a prophet to those who had been exiled from Judah. So when the Judeans heard the dry bones prophecy, they would naturally consider it to apply to Judah. Judah had been a separate kingdom from the northern kingdom of Israel, also known as Samaria, for over three centuries. Further, Israel had vanished from the scene as a kingdom over a century earlier. God now makes clear that the dry bones prophecy applies not just to Judah, but also to Israel.

All twelve tribes will be raised and united in the new kingdom. This addition to the vision begins:

The word of the LORD came again to me saying, (v. 15).

This is an add-on. The dry bones prophecy has ended, and a new one is beginning. Rather than showing Ezekiel a vision, this time God asks Ezekiel to perform a sign-act,

"And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it, 'For Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions'; then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.' Then join them for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand." (vv. 16-17)

The LORD's instruction is to create a sign—two labeled sticks joined together. The purpose of this object is to create curiosity and inquiry. This will give Ezekiel the opportunity to pronounce to them God's plan to restore not only Judah, but also its long-lost sister Israel.

Ezekiel is to take two sticks and combine them into one. Each stick represents the two halves of the divided kingdom. The first is marked For Judah—the southern kingdom, whose capital was Jerusalem and whose king descended from David. The second is marked For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.

Ephraim was the dominant tribe of the northern kingdom, which had gone under the name Israel or Ephraim since the division under Rehoboam in 930 BC. Ephraim was the second son of Joseph. Joseph got a double portion in his inheritance in the Promised Land as a reward for his faithfulness. Both of Joseph's sons became tribes who obtained an allotment of land (Ephraim and Manasseh). The phrase all the house of Israel, his companions refers to the other nine tribes who joined with Ephraim to make up the northern kingdom.

God caused the split as judgment on Solomon for disobeying God's covenant/treaty and sanctioning the worship of pagan deities in order to appease his foreign wives. It could be that God mentions Joseph by name because Joseph is an Old Testament picture of the Messiah to come. For example:

• The text mentions none of Joseph's sins, indicating that the messiah will be without sin (2 Corinthians 5:21).

• Joseph was beloved by his father (Genesis 37:3) as was Jesus (Matthew 3:17)

• Joseph was sent by his father to his brothers (Genesis 37:13-14) as was Jesus (John 3:17)

• Joseph was rejected by his brothers (Genesis 37:4) as was Jesus (John 1:11)

• Joseph was conspired against and plotted to be killed (Genesis 37:18) as was Jesus (Matthew 26:4)

• Joseph was sold for silver (Genesis 37:28) as Jesus was betrayed for silver (Matthew 26:15)

• Joseph was handed over into the hand of the Gentiles, being sold to Egypt (Genesis 37:28) as Jesus was handed over to the Romans to be crucified (Matthew 20:19)

• Joseph was falsely accused (Genesis 39:14-20) as was Jesus (Mark 14:56)

• Joseph did not defend himself against the accusations of Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:19-20, implied); Jesus stood silent when accused (Isaiah 53:7, Matthew 27:12)

• Joseph suffered unjustly, being imprisoned though innocent (Genesis 39:20) and Jesus was sinless and righteous, dying for the unrighteous (1 Peter 3:18)

• Joseph was numbered with transgressors (two prisoners), where one was saved and the other condemned (Genesis 40:1-22). Jesus was likewise "numbered with the transgressors" (Isaiah 53:12; Luke 23:32-33); one thief saved, one not (Luke 23:39-43)

• Joseph was exalted after suffering unjustly, being set over all of Egypt (Genesis 41:41). Jesus was also exalted for suffering unjustly and doing the will of His Father (Philippians 2:8-10, Matthew 28:18, Hebrews 2:9, Revelation 3:21, Hebrews 12:2)

• Joseph was raised to the right hand of the greatest power on earth, Pharaoh (Genesis 41:40). Jesus was raised to the right hand of the greatest power of creation (Matthew 28:18, Revelation 3:21, Hebrews 12:2).

• Joseph became the source of life/salvation (Genesis 45:5), Jesus became the source of eternal life (John 3:14-16, 6:35)

• Joseph provided bread to the world, distributing grain during a famine (Genesis 41:56-57). Jesus is the bread of life providing life to the world (John 6:33)

• Joseph was later recognized by his brothers (Genesis 45:3). This will eventually come to pass for Jesus's fellow brothers of Israel (Zechariah 12:10, Romans 11:26).

• Joseph forgave those who wronged him (Genesis 50:20) as did Jesus (Luke 23:34).

• Joseph remained Jewish but had a Gentile bride, Asenath, an Egyptian (Genesis 41:45). Jesus remains Jewish and will sit on the throne of David but also take a bride largely made up of Gentile believers (Ephesians 5:25-27, 32).

Highlighting Joseph as the companion that will meld with Judah may picture two messianic pictures, Joseph and David. David is the king of Judah, Jesus the Son of David and Lion of Judah.

The instruction join them one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand is an announcement of the healing work of restoration the LORD plans. The prophet holds in his hand what was torn apart for centuries but God will rejoin. The purpose of the stick is to solicit inquiries from the people. When asked, God tells Ezekiel what his response is to be:

"When the sons of your people speak to you saying, 'Will you not declare to us what you mean by these?' say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "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, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand"' (vv. 18-19).

The LORD's purpose for the illustration is to compel a question of meaning, which will be answered with a prediction of restoration that likely went beyond anything the people might have imagined. The explanation follows the form of the sign: the LORD Himself will take the stick of Joseph/Israel and join it to the stick of Judah.

The reunification is the LORD's own act. The explanation to the people in verse 19 largely repeats what God told Ezekiel in verses 16-17. The northern kingdom had been in Assyrian dispersion/exile since 722 BC; the southern kingdom had just entered Babylonian exile. There was no reasonable cause to expect either could ever take their land in the face of world empires. But the LORD is over all authorities, and seems to enjoy doing what humans consider impossible. As He says repeatedly in Ezekiel, this is so the people can know He is the LORD.