Joined Together in Unity

Continuing our look at Jews and Christians being heirs together though the finished work of Jesus Christ, Ezekiel gives us another word about unity.

Ezekiel 37:15 The word of the LORD came to me: 16 “Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, ‘Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, ‘Ephraim’s stick, belonging to Joseph and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 17 Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand. 

The enduring tribe of Judah would be joined with what are often considered the “lost tribes.”  Carried into exile and perceived as lost among the nations, absorbed, assimilated, and extinct as a people group?  God says, “Nope. Still a people to Me.”

God Himself gathers and brings together. 

Ezekiel 37:18 “When your countrymen ask you, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?’ 19 say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph– which is in Ephraim’s hand– and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah’s stick, making them a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.’  20 Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on 21 and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land.

Just as Joseph was thought dead to his brothers and father, only to be restored to them, so too, the faithful from the “lost tribes” will be restored as the remnant plucked bit by bit out of the nations to which they’d gone.  

We don’t have to figure out who they are. All we have to do is trust God with His clearly stated Word. God knows who they are and where they are.  God gathers.  God brings together.  God joins in unity.