Ezekiel 37:15-28--I Will Be Their God; They Shall Be My People

Ezekiel 37:15-28
English Standard Version

I Will Be Their God; They Shall Be My People
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. 18 And when your people say to you, ‘Will you not tell us what you mean by these?’ 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. 20 When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, 21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. 22 And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. 23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

24 “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. 25 They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”

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Ezekiel was to take two sticks and write messages on them that represented the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom referred to as Ephraim (the "leader" of the northern 10 tribes).  The LORD commanded Ezekiel to bind the two sticks together to make them as if they were one (anyone who has tried this before knows that it is difficult).

The LORD gave Ezekiel the meaning to give to the people when they asked for it--the LORD would reunite the Twelve Tribes again into a united kingdom.  He will bring all the exiles and refugees back to the Land (not just from the Babylonian exile and Assyrian exile, but from everywhere they have been dispersed to in the entire world), and they will live under a single king (the Messiah).  In this new kingdom, the people will no longer give themselves over to idols and the LORD will save them not only from the nations, but their own sin natures--they will no longer backslide.

Ezekiel once against says that David will be the shepherd over the nation.  The people will live under the fullness of the covenant made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the covenant made with David.  They will have eternal peace and blessing.  The LORD will once again dwell with His people like He did in the Garden of Eden.  There will be no more need for a Tabernacle or a Temple, because the people will dwell with Him in the Most Holy Place all the time.  They will be a kingdom of priests--ministers of the gospel--as He has always wanted them to be, and all the nations will know that He is the LORD and worship Him.