Two Sticks

Two Sticks

(Ezekiel 37:15-28)

Yearly Theme:  “Kindness is… Advancement”

Series Title:  “Kindness in Exile”

July 30^th, 2023

Something to think about:

Why is it so hard to maintain unity (especially within the Church)?  I contend the reason is that maintaining unity requires conceding personal wants, wills, and desires and being willing to not always have our own way.  Now, this doesn’t mean that the truth, nor the Word of GOD, should ever be compromised.  However, what it does mean is that our firm resolve should always be toward reconciliation and restoration.

After the Civil War in America, the war-torn land and the countless lives lost, left deep wounds in a once United Country.  Rebuilding would not be easy, and would also come at a price.  In the early days just after the end of the war, when President Lincoln was asked how he would treat the rebellious southerners when they were defeated, he said, “I will treat them as if they had never been away.”[1]

Such is the case between GOD and the exiles upon their return back to the land their ancestors once inhabited.  The divided nation of Israel that once inhabited the land, would return from exile as a united people once again.

Today, as we close out our series entitled, “Kindness in Exile,” we come to a passage of promised unity and restoration from GOD to His exiled people.  Let’s take a look…

Turn in your Bible to:  Ezekiel 37:15-28

There was one tragic historical fact that stood in the way of full covenantal renewal. The covenant nation had split in two after the reign of Solomon—half a millennium ago, from the standpoint of the exiles. It was an ancient and apparently irreversible cleavage. The northern kingdom of Israel had been wiped off the face of the map in any case, 150 years before the present destruction of the kingdom of Judah. And in spite of some attempts by godly kings like Hezekiah and Josiah to bring about some reunification of the remnants of the north with the people of Judah, it really had not worked out. But Yahweh is not only the God of life; he is also the God of unity. If death can be reversed, so can division. So Ezekiel’s final acted prophecy portrays a future unification of the people of God. There will ultimately be one people of the one God.^[2]

Key Point:  “GOD can restore what had once been lost.”

• Israel and Judah come  as one  .

Ezekiel 37:15-19 (NLT),  ¹⁵ Again a message came to me from the Lord: ¹⁶ “Son of man, take a piece of wood and carve on it these words: ‘This represents Judah and its allied tribes.’ Then take another piece and carve these words on it: ‘This represents Ephraim and the northern tribes of Israel.’ ¹⁷ Now hold them together in your hand as if they were one piece of wood. ¹⁸ When your people ask you what your actions mean, ¹⁹ say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take Ephraim and the northern tribes and join them to Judah. I will make them one piece of wood in my hand.’

• Israel and Judah  in Christ.

Ezekiel 37:20-23 (NLT),  ²⁰ “Then hold out the pieces of wood you have inscribed, so the people can see them.  ²¹ And give them this message from the Sovereign Lord:  I will gather the people of Israel from among the nations.  I will bring them home to their own land from the places where they have been scattered.  ²² I will unify them into one nation on the mountains of Israel.  One king will rule them all; no longer will they be divided into two nations or into two kingdoms.  ²³ They will never again pollute themselves with their idols and vile images and rebellion, for I will save them from their sinful apostasy.  I will cleanse them. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God.

• Jews and Gentiles become  in Christ.

Ezekiel 37:24-28 (NLT),  ²⁴ “My servant David will be their king, and they will have only one shepherd.  They will obey my regulations and be careful to keep my decrees.  ²⁵ They will live in the land I gave my servant Jacob, the land where their ancestors lived.  They and their children and their grandchildren after them will live there forever, generation after generation.  And my servant David will be their prince forever.  ²⁶ And I will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant.  I will give them their land and increase their numbers, and I will put my Temple among them forever.  ²⁷ I will make my home among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.  ²⁸ And when my Temple is among them forever, the nations will know that I am the Lord, who makes Israel holy.”

Something to take home:

True unity can only come when people are completely submitted to GOD and each other.  This mutual act of submission is rooted in the Greatest Commandment to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.”  Why has the church become so fractured and prone to false teaching today?  It seems the answer to that question could be directly linked to an unwillingness to truly love GOD and each other with the type of love that GOD had for us through Christ.  How much division could be resolved by a mutual willingness to surrender everything we have and all that we are to GOD through faith and belief in Christ and the unity of the Holy Spirit?

Consider the words of Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus:

Ephesians 4:3-6 (NLT),  ³  Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.  ⁴  For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.  ⁵  There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶  and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.

[1] From a sermon by David Rumley, “Redefining Lost,” 10/28/2009.

^[2] Christopher J. H. Wright, The Message of Ezekiel: A New Heart and a New Spirit, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2001), 311–312.