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.’ 17Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand.
18“When your countrymen ask you, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?’ 19say 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.’ 20Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on 21and 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. 22I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms. 23They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
24“ ‘My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. 25They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever. 26I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. 27My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.’ ”
Original Meaning
THIS PASSAGE CONTAINS a sign-act and a related oracle concerning the future reunification of God’s people. It acts as a hinge, both summing up the oracles of hope in chapters 34–37 and looking forward to the establishment of the new sanctuary (chs. 40–48) after the final convulsion of evil in chapters 38–39.
The sign-act involves the prophet’s taking two sticks, each of which he is to inscribe with a name (37:16). One is to be designated “Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him” (i.e., the southern kingdom), while the other is to bear the message, “Ephraim’s stick, belonging to Joseph and all the house of Israel associated with him” (i.e., the northern kingdom). Strictly speaking, the two rivals for first place among Jacob’s sons are Judah and Joseph; hence the proper designation of the sticks as “Belonging to Judah/belonging to Joseph.” Historically, however, the rivalry had become essentially a struggle between (the tribes of) Judah and Ephraim, who was Joseph’s younger son and the dominant tribe in the northern part of Israel. For that reason, after the schism at the time of Rehoboam, the northern kingdom based in Samaria is frequently referred to as “Ephraim.” This historical reality is reflected in the description of the second stick as “Ephraim’s stick.” Ezekiel is then instructed to join the sticks together in his hand so that they become one stick (37:17).
The writing on the sticks makes the symbolism of the act entirely transparent. Clearly, the reunification of northern and southern kingdoms is anticipated. The sticks (ʿēṣ) inscribed with names of tribes recall the incident of Numbers 17:6–10, where the staffs (maṭṭeh) of the tribal princes are placed before the Lord and Aaron’s staff is chosen.1 Here, however, far from choosing one from the many, the two sticks (scepters?)2 will be merged into a single, united entity. Not only will the events of recent history be reversed, as has been the focus of Ezekiel 34–37 so far; in addition, the events of much earlier history will be undone. The divided kingdom will once again be undivided. The key word in this section is the word “one” (ʾeḥād), which occurs ten times.3
Because the action itself is so transparent, the expected question from the audience, “Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?” (37:18), is not a request for illumination about the import of the various symbols. Rather, it is a question about the deeper significance of the sign. The Lord’s reply, therefore, merely reiterates the sign without further explication, while adding the emphasis that “I” will accomplish all this.4 The solution to Israel’s lengthy history of internal division is not to be found in the appointment of a binational committee to develop a “peace process” but in the divine act of reuniting his people.
What is more, the divinely effected reunion will address the issues raised by the original schism. Just as the division was caused by a failure in the area of servant leadership, with Rehoboam unwilling to serve the people as the older counselors advised (1 Kings 12:7), so also the reunion will be effected by the Lord’s providing a single servant-leader, “my servant David” (Ezek. 37:24). Just as the division resulted in the setting up of separate sanctuaries (1 Kings 12:25–33), so also the reunion will result in a return to a single, divinely approved sanctuary in their midst (Ezek. 37:26). There will be no glossing over the differences; the reunion will be established on the basis of a fundamental new spiritual unity, effected by God in the hearts of his people. The Lord’s hand is the place where the sticks are rejoined.
Unlike chapter 34, then, the mention of “my servant David” focuses not so much on the nature of the leader as on his significance as the foundation of unity. Just as David had earlier welded the disparate tribes into a united kingdom, so this new David will bring about renewed unity: one kingdom under one king (37:22).5 He will rule over a renewed people, who will no longer defile themselves with their idols and images, whether in the defiled Jerusalem temple (Ezek. 8) or in the dual temples that Jeroboam set up in Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12:28–33). These temples, which the biblical writers viewed as idolatrous from the outset, will disappear altogether. The nation will be purified and cleansed by God, thus allowing for a restoration of the covenant relationship between God and his people (Ezek. 37:23) and the blessings that flow from such a relationship (37:25). What is more, those blessings will be enduring, to “their children and their children’s children . . . forever” (37:25). The covenant of peace will be “an everlasting covenant”; the sanctuary will be restored to their midst “forever” (37:26).6
Because the work of purification and reunification is the Lord’s, so also the glory will be his. Just as the destruction of the temple and the scattering of the people led to the Lord’s name being profaned among the nations, so also the permanent restoration of the sanctuary to Israel’s midst will result in the nations’ recognizing that the Lord has endowed his people with a new level of holiness (37:28). The significance of the temple’s restoration as crowning blessing, then, is this: It is objective evidence of the successful completion of the Lord’s purposes to make for himself a holy people, a purpose announced already in 36:27 as the expected result of the outpouring of the Lord’s Spirit. The enduring existence of the temple is a marker of that transforming work, for the sanctuary can only exist securely forever in the midst of a thoroughly sanctified community.
This chapter (and with it the section comprising chs. 34–37) closes with the prospect of renewed Israel’s living at peace within their own land (37:26). This is the necessary precondition for the final onslaught of the forces of evil in chapters 38–39, in which God will demonstrate his power and commitment to his people by decisively rescuing them from their enemies. However, it is also the necessary prerequisite for the temple building plan of chapters 40–48.
In Deuteronomy 12:10, the Lord promised to give rest (Hiphil of nwḥ) to his people from their enemies all around them in the land, after which it would be time to build the central sanctuary. In accordance with that command, “after the LORD had given [David] rest” (Hiphil of nwḥ, 2 Sam. 7:1), he started to think about building a temple for the Lord in Jerusalem. Similarly, once the new, united Israel has been settled (Hiphil of nwḥ) in the land (Ezek. 37:14) and is at peace, then the nation’s thoughts will naturally turn to temple building. Thus the promise of the Lord’s sanctuary in the midst of his settled people is a fitting capstone to the prophecies of restoration. Though her enemies will once more descend on her (chs. 38–39), it is so that they may be defeated by the Lord, who will then establish his final temple (chs. 40–48).
Bridging Contexts
THE THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE of the temple. The temple is not a central category in contemporary Christian thinking. Where we do think of the Old Testament temple, we tend to think of it as simply the forerunner of the modern church building. Its broader political, social, and theological significance is largely lost on us.
In the ancient Near East, however, the state of a society’s temples was considered a measure of its health and wealth and an indication of the favor of its gods. When a king was strong and prosperous, “blessed” by his god, that fact would often be publicly demonstrated through an ambitious program of public building works, of which a temple was a prime example. The building program itself could act as a focus of national unity and a sign of divine approval.7 In this context, a restoration of a people and of their monarchy without the visible symbol of divine presence provided by the temple would have been unthinkable.
In a similar way, the White House, the Capitol, and the other buildings in Washington, D.C., have a significance for Americans that goes far beyond their mere function as the seat of government. In a real sense, the buildings represent America, and to let them crumble would be unthinkable, even if other equivalent buildings had been erected to carry out their practical function. Thus, when the original presidential palace was destroyed in the War of 1812, it was a matter of national pride to replace it with a bigger and better building as soon as possible.
But there is more than one symbol of God’s presence with his people in the Old Testament. The patriarchs experienced his presence in various ways, all of which were occasional rather than permanent. God’s permanent dwelling in the midst of his people was not established until Mount Sinai, where Moses received the instructions for the tabernacle (Ex. 25–40). This dwelling was a mobile tent, appropriate for the people’s condition as wanderers in the desert and for the early years of conquering the Promised Land. The temple that Solomon constructed at God’s command was different. It was not merely the tabernacle on a larger scale, it was a glorious building, exuding permanence and stability—the suitable symbol for God’s people at rest in God’s land (1 Kings 6).
Ezekiel’s vision of God’s presence in the midst of his people is different again: It revolves around the establishment of a sanctuary (miqdāš), a place where they experience and respect God’s holiness. It is the symbol of a holy God living in the midst of a holy people. This theme will emerge more clearly in the detailed description of the temple in Ezekiel 40–48, but it is adumbrated already in 37:28, where it is announced that the nations will come to recognize that the Lord sanctifies (meqaddēš) Israel when his sanctuary (miqdāš) is among them forever.
The idea of the holy. This connection between the “sanctuary” and “sanctity” or “holiness” has been largely lost today. It was strongly present in medieval and pre-Reformation cathedrals and churches, which were normally divided into three parts. There was the nave, which was accessible to everybody; the chancel, which was only accessible to priest and choir; and the sanctuary, which housed the altar, where only the priest entered.8 This medieval layout directly reflects the design of the Old Testament temple.
Reformation churches, which rightly emphasized the priesthood—and thus sanctity—of all believers, did away with these distinctions. They recognized that, as we saw in our discussion of Ezekiel 36, the old division of sacred and profane no longer runs through God’s people, separating sacred priest from secular congregation, but rather now divides a people who are all holy in Christ from a profane world. The church building was assigned its proper new covenant role as the meeting house of the saints, not the house of God. In place of the central (but remote) altar, the building was redesigned to gather the people around the pulpit and communion table, reflecting the vision of God’s people assembled to receive his Word rightly preached and the sacraments duly administered.9
The danger of this arrangement, however, is that we lose the necessary sense of holiness when we gather as God’s people. As we will see in our study of Ezekiel 40–48, holiness is one of the dominating principles of the new temple. Certainly, in revising the architecture of their churches, nobody intended to lose the idea of holiness. The intention of the Reformers was rather to assert the holiness of all of life. In practice, however, we have all too often profaned all of life instead, leveling everything down rather than up.
Thus we may call the room in which we meet the “sanctuary,” yet there is no sense of awe when we gather together as the church, no sense that it is the almighty and holy God himself with whom we are meeting. As a result, our individual lives are often similarly devoid of contact with the Holy One. Because we do not recognize the meeting together of the saints as a “sanctuary” in the biblical sense, we do not live the lives of sanctity that we ought.
Contemporary Significance
JESUS AS OUR TEMPLE. Church unity has become, in some quarters, the modern equivalent of the Holy Grail. It is the revered object of earnest searching and eager desire. There is good reason for this enthusiasm among Christians. Jesus himself prayed for his postapostolic followers to be one, just as he and the Father are one. His desire was that we might be brought to complete unity so that the world may know that the Father sent the Son (John 17:21–23). Though in the present we live in a world where Christians are fragmented and separated from one another, on the basis of the Scriptures we should be repeatedly saying to ourselves and to others: “This is not how the church ought to be.”10 But it is not enough to be in favor of unity in the abstract; we must also be clear about the basis for this unity. In what is the unity of God’s people to be grounded? Ezekiel 37 gives us the key answers.
Ezekiel’s sign pointing to the reunification of God’s people was grounded in the sovereign act of God’s establishing one king over his people and one temple at the center of their worship. So also our desired unity as Christians, if it is to be genuine, must be grounded not in ecumenical study commissions and interchurch potluck dinners, but in Jesus Christ, who fulfills both aspects of Ezekiel 37 as our true temple and our true king. True Christian unity does not flow from the top down, with high-level ecclesiastical committees and denominational leaders showing the way, nor does it flow from the bottom up, coming by means of grass-roots initiatives by individual church members. Rather, it flows from the center out: It comes from Christ-centered people discovering that they are, in fact, servants of a common Lord and King.
Christ himself is our true temple because he accomplished in himself everything to which the tabernacle and temple of the Old Testament pointed. When the Word became flesh, he “made his dwelling [lit., tabernacled] among us” (John 1:14), manifesting God’s glory in our midst, just as the Mosaic tabernacle was the place where God’s glory was manifested in the desert (Ex. 40:34). In him, God’s glorious presence is experienced in the midst of his people. Moreover, to act against his person is to do nothing less than to assault God’s temple. That is why, referring to his own body in John 2:19, Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
Because Jesus is our temple, he himself is what unites his people together in worship. When Jesus met with the woman of Samaria, he prophesied an end to the divisions between Jews and Samaritans founded on their separate temples: “A time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain [at the Samaritan temple located on Mount Gerizim] nor in Jerusalem [at the temple on Mount Zion] . . . [but] in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21–24). This marks a radical change in the old order of things, which anticipated the nations’ coming to worship God at Mount Zion. With the coming of Christ, the old division between Jew and Samaritan in worship is broken down, not by Samaritans coming to the temple in Jerusalem but by Jew and Samaritan alike being incorporated into Christ himself, as the final temple.
Likewise, Christ has broken down the old wall between Jews and Gentiles through his death on the cross, building both together into a new, holy temple to the Lord (Eph. 2:14–22).11 There is but one temple of God in this age, the church, the body of Jesus Christ, in which Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles are all brought together as one. As Galatians 3:28 puts it: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
True unity in the church. It is therefore necessarily a contradiction in terms when the church is divided on racial or ethnic lines. Churches and denominations ought not to be “homogeneous units,” where Christians choose to meet together with others exactly like them. Rather, each church should strive to be a heterogeneous mixture of those for whom Christ died, an entity that transcends racial, ethnic, cultural, and class barriers, giving expression as a worshiping community to the unity that is ours in our common adoption into God’s family. As J. K. S. Reid puts it:
The church is not an association or corporation of like-minded individuals; and its unity does not have only such strength as their likemindedness possesses and so can confer. On the contrary, its unity rests upon what Christ has done and is thus complete and inviolate.12
Jesus as our king. Our unity as God’s people is also rooted in the kingship of Christ. Our fundamental, most basic Christian confession is “Jesus is Lord” (Rom. 10:9; 1 Cor. 12:3). It is because Jesus is the chief cornerstone that the entire building holds together (Eph. 2:20). The church is only one flock, because we are all under the one Shepherd (John 10:16). Jesus Christ is the true and only Head of the church, the One from whom all authority flows. The ascended Lord is the One who provides pastors and teachers for his church, so that we may all “reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God” (Eph. 4:13).
The division of Israel in Ezekiel’s day was not between two equally valid opinions, between allegiance to two equally legitimate kings. There was no doubt in the minds of the biblical writers that the line of David was the legitimate line, so that unity could only come in the person of that line. The northern kingdom had to surrender their erroneous views for true peace to be established. In the same way, the age-old dispute between the Samaritans and Jews of Jesus’ day was not a moot issue. There was a right answer to the theological issue as to where one should worship: Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem. The Jews had historically been right (John 4:22). Unity would come not through Jews and Samaritans forging a balanced compromise, representing the middle ground between them. Rather, it would be established through the Samaritans coming to the salvation that had been proclaimed to the Jews from the beginning and that had now found its fulfillment in Christ.
For that reason, there can be no unity or compromise with those who deny the lordship of Christ, whether through theological statements that deny the reality of Jesus as the Son of God, or through practice that demonstrates effective unbelief. We are not to welcome all professing Christians indiscriminately, as if what you believe was a matter of small importance. Instead, the New Testament teaches us that we are to refuse to have anything to do with those who teach false doctrine (2 John 10–11). Nor are we to ignore gross sin in our midst, but rather we should exercise appropriate church discipline on those who have sinned, for the sake of their souls (1 Cor. 5:1–5). For our oneness as God’s people is based on the rule of Christ over his church and his work of building his saints together into a holy temple, fit for his habitation.
Some divisions may therefore continue to be necessary “to show which of you have God’s approval,” as Paul puts it (1 Cor. 11:19). There will presumably also continue to be doctrines about which real Christians disagree, which for the sake of peace and harmony in the present may necessitate different denominations. Nonetheless, we should not be in any doubt about God’s desire for the church and his eternal purpose for the church—that we may all be one even as the Father and the Son are one (John 17:21).
That purpose will ultimately be accomplished by Christ’s work of complete sanctification of his people. There will be no doctrinal disagreements in heaven, for we will all understand perfectly, even as we are perfectly understood (cf. 1 Cor. 13:12). In the meantime, given the clear biblical statements of God’s purpose and plan, we all need to search our hearts and consider what we personally have done and are doing to give true biblical unity its fullest possible present expression. How are we responding to Paul’s admonition to the divided Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1:10?
I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.