Another Jew - Gentile Picture

“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.” (Ezek 37:19)

Through the prophet Ezekiel, the LORD promised a future time when He would join the stick of Ephraim to the stick of Judah and the two would become one “echad” stick, the same word used for the nature of God in the Shema (Deut 6:4). The stick of Ephraim represented the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel, while the stick of Judah represented the two tribes of the southern kingdom. Other than one from the southern kingdom and one from the northern kingdom, why did the LORD select these two specific tribes?

One might initially observe that the tribe of Judah represented David and the tribe of Ephraim represented Joseph, both men after God’s own heart and prominent depictions in scripture of the Messiah. Even more significant is the connection of these two tribes to the twelve men who spied out the Promised Land. Of the twelve only two were found worthy to enter the Promised Land, Joshua and Caleb (Num 32:11-12). I did not remember, but now I will not forget that Joshua came from the tribe of Ephraim (Num 13:8), while Caleb came from the tribe of Judah (Num 13:6). It does not seem by coincidence that the LORD repeatedly chooses these two tribes in scripture to be the primary representatives of the divided kingdom (2 Chron 34:9)(Isa 7:17)(Hos 11:12).

Remember from the previous posting of Tina and the sermon of Bryan that Ephraim and Judah come to represent the two types of people in the world. While Joshua was the son of the Jewish father Num, Caleb was the son of a Gentile, Jephunneh the Kenizzite (Numb 32:12). A Jew and a Gentile would be the two only people over twenty years of age who left Egypt to enter the Promised Land. The nature of God’s justice (Psa 45:6) compels Him to offer salvation equally to both the Jew and the Gentile alike. A picture of this common salvation is found in the entry of Joshua and Caleb into the promised land and also in the unity of the two sticks.

If Joshua and Caleb represent a picture of the common salvation offered by the LORD, then the sticks of their corresponding tribes represent the unity that will come to the Jew and Gentile. This unity and purpose of God is spoken in the Greek text, which states,

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. (Eph 2:11-17)

The plan of God has been to use the unique and special relationship between God and the Jewish nation to save the entire world drawing all who revere the LORD into a relationship that is one with Him. Yeshua become a “light for the Gentiles”, and He will also “restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel who I have kept” (Isa 49:6)(Isa 42:1-7). In this prophecy, Isaiah is telling us that salvation comes to the Gentile through Yeshua and Yeshua is also the path for the Jewish people to be restored back to a relationship with the LORD, a “restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time” (Acts 3:21).