15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 “Son of man, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the people of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 17 And join them one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand.
Through the Bible: Ezekiel 37-39
God isn’t done with using Ezekiel as a performance artist. Today, we see Ezekiel playing the role of either a magician who transforms two sticks into one, or a Boy Scout who is earning his knot tying merit badge. The text isn’t clear on which it is. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
In Ezekiel 37, God asks Ezekiel to take two sticks — one labeled Judah, the other Israel — and join them into a single piece in his hand. Simple enough, right? But he doesn’t say how this is to be done.
Joining together broken things is easier said than done. But it also happens to be God’s specialty.
A Fractured Family
By Ezekiel’s time, the division between Judah and Israel had lasted over 350 years. The split happened after Solomon’s reign, when King Rehoboam followed the bad advice of his frat brothers and treated his citizens like slaves. This was around 931 BC (1 Kings 12). At that point, the United Kingdom became the divided kingdom of Israel in the North and Judah in the South. Each would fall. The Northern Kingdom (Israel) was eventually conquered by Assyria in 722 BC. The Southern Kingdom (Judah) lasted longer but was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BC.
For generations, God’s people had lived divided — politically, spiritually, and relationally. They didn’t just disagree; they hated each other. Each claimed they were the true people of God.
And then God says:
“Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph that is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand.” (Ezekiel 37:19)
You might as well get the Gallagher brothers to cut another Oasis record. Or promise to get Democrats and Republicans to agree on climate change (or really, anything). But God says, “I’m doing what history says is impossible. I’m getting the band back together.”
How Do You Join Two Sticks?
The text never tells us how Ezekiel bound the sticks together. Did he use twine? A strip of cloth? Some of his leftover hair from chapter 5? Today, the typical man would simply say, “Duct tape. Problem solved.”
But what if it was something only God could do? What if Ezekiel didn’t join the sticks at all? What if it was supernatural? The grammar suggests that the joining happens while they are held. The unity isn’t something Ezekiel engineers — it happens in his hand because of God’s command. That little phrase “in your hand” echoes Exodus 4:3-4, when God miraculously transformed Moses’ staff into a snake, and then back into a staff “in his hand.”
For Moses, the staff becoming a serpent in his hand was a sign that God’s power would move through him — not because of the staff, not because of his grip, but because God was acting.
For Ezekiel, the fusion of two dead sticks into one “in his hand” echoes the same idea: this isn’t Ezekiel’s work. This is God’s supernatural sign that He Himself is reuniting what had been divided for centuries.
God Does the Joining
Forget every English teacher who told you never to use the passive voice. The text revels in the passive voice. It doesn’t say “and Ezekiel bound the sticks together, making them one.” It says, that they may become one in your hand. This isn’t a picture of crafts time at VBS. Its a supernatural miracle of integration. Two dead things becoming one living thing.
Don’t miss the switch that happens in verse 19. When God instructs Ezekiel what to say to the people who wonder what all this means, notice whose hand it is now:
19 say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand.
Who is holding the stick now? Who does the joining? Not Ezekiel. God does the doing.
The Branch of Jesse
In Ezekiel 37, God goes on to promise a king who will rule over this reunited people:
“My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd… and David my servant shall be their prince forever.” (Ezekiel 37:24–25)
But hold up: David had been dead for 400 years by Ezekiel’s time — which means God isn’t talking about the original David. He’s pointing forward to Jesus, the Son of David. He is the Shepherd-King who lays down His life for His sheep (John 10:11). He is the bridge building King who tears down dividing walls of hostility (Ephesians 2:14-15). He is the fruit bearing branch growing from a dead stump (Isaiah 11:1-4).
Back to the Exodus, Forward to the Gospel
In Exodus, the staff signaled God’s authority over Pharaoh’s empire. In Ezekiel, the sticks signal God’s authority over Israel’s fractured family.
This would not be the last time God brought broken pieces together. When Jesus prayed over His disciples, His prayer was that “they might be One, as I and the father are One” (see John 17:20-23).
Jesus knew that within hours, He would be arrested, and His disciples would flee in fear in all directions.
But the Father could make them one again.
Jesus knew the day would come when His church would be hopelessly divided over worship styles, politics, caring for the poor, and the color of our skin.
Only the Father can make us one again.
Grafted In: God’s Bigger Story
This moment in Ezekiel isn’t just about uniting ancient Israel. It’s part of a much bigger story God is writing. Centuries later, the Apostle Paul picked up on this image in Romans 11. He compared the Gentiles finding their place in the family of God to a wild branch being grafted in to an established tree:
and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree (Romans 11:17)
Paul describes Gentiles — spiritual outsiders — being “grafted in” to the covenant family of God. Dead branches from wild olive trees are joined to the living root of Israel so that they share the same life and nourishment.
From the banks of the Kebar Canal to the Upper Room to a prison cell in Ephesus, God has been telling the same story:
- What’s scattered, God gathers.
- What’s divided, God unites.
- What’s dead, God makes alive.
What About You?
Jesus is the one who takes broken sticks, dead branches, fractured families, scattered hearts — and makes us one in Him. Unity isn’t something we manufacture with duct tape and twine. It’s something God does — supernatural, Spirit-powered, and rooted in the Cross.
Let this truth wash over you: If God can heal a 350-year-old split between Judah and Israel, He can heal the divisions in His church. He alone can heal the fractures in our country, so that we can be one nation, under God.
He can graft strangers into family.
He can make your shattered heart whole again.
And what God has joined together, let no man separate.
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