God will restore the whole house of Israel
37:11 Then he said unto
me,
[1]. Son of man,
[2] these bones are
[a.] the whole house of Israel [the 12 tribes of Jacob]: behold, they say,
[11.] Our bones are dried, and
[12.] our hope is lost:
[13.] we are cut off for our parts.
37:12 Therefore prophesy
and say unto them,
[1] Thus saith the Lord GOD;
[a.] Behold, O
my people, I will
[11.] open your graves, and
[12.] cause you to come up out of your graves, and
[13.] bring you into the land of Israel.
37:13 And [b.] ye shall know that I [am] the LORD, when I
[11.] have opened your graves, O my people, and
[12.] [have] brought you up out of your graves,
37:14 And [13.] shall put my spirit in you,
and
[aa.] ye shall live, and I
[14.] shall place you in your own land:
[c.] then shall ye know that I the LORD have
[11.] spoken [it] [God does not move until He first speaks and reveals
His Word to one of His prophets (Amos
3:7)], and
[12.] performed [it], saith the LORD [He hastens His Word to perform it (Jer. 1:12)].
There are two branches to the whole house of Israel: the stick
of Judah and the stick of Joseph which in the hand of Ephraim
37:15 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
37:16 Moreover, thou son
of man,
[1] take thee one stick, and
[a.] write
upon it,
[11.] For Judah, and
[12.] for the children of Israel
his companions [part of the children
of Israel was (and is) with Judah
(one stick of the children of Israel
was—and is—with Judah: in Ezekiel's day these were the Jews in Babylonian
captivity during; the remainder of the house of Israel—the northern
kingdom—was carried off by Assyria and scattered throughout the nations.
These are the so-called lost tribes of Israel.]: then
[2] take another stick, and
[b.] write upon
it,
[11.] For Joseph,
[aa.] the stick of Ephraim [Joseph’s
inheritance is in Ephraim], and
[12] [for] all the house of Israel
his companions [the other portion of the house of Israel is with Ephraim—heirs to the blessing of Joseph[1]—and
are not known as Jews today]:
37:17 And
[3] join them [the joining of Judah with
Ephraim as one nation is a pre-millennial promise]
[a.] one to
another into one stick; and
[b.] they
shall become one in thine hand
[one nation, under God, indivisible].
37:18 And
[1] when the children of thy people
[a.] shall speak unto thee, saying,
[11.] Wilt thou
not show us what thou [meanest] by these?
37:19 [2] Say unto them, Thus saith the
Lord GOD; Behold,
[a.] I will
take
[11.] the stick of Joseph,
[aa.] which [is] in the hand
of
Ephraim, and
[12.] the tribes of Israel [all 12 tribes, not just Jews from the tribe of Judah]
his fellows, and
[b.] [I] will
put them with him,
[11.] [even] with the stick of Judah, and
[c.] [I will] make them one stick, and
[11.] they shall be one in mine hand.
37:20 And
[3] the sticks whereon thou
writest
[a.] shall be
in thine hand before their eyes.
[1] God told Jacob, when He changed his name to Israel, that a company of nations would come out of his loins (Gen. 35:9-11). Israel (Jacob), when he blessed the sons of Joseph, prophesied that both Manasseh (Joseph's firstborn) and Ephraim would become a multitude in the midst (center) of the earth. But, when Israel pronounced his blessing, he gave it to Ephraim, and said that although Manasseh shall become a great people, Ephraim would become greater and would become a multitude of nations [which would not be called by the name of Israel (Gen. 48:14-20)]. In Israel's final prophetic blessing, he gave to Joseph—through the multitude of nations that were to come out of Ephraim—the blessings that he had received from God through Abraham and Isaac (Gen. 49:25-26; 35:11).
© 1997-2009 Walter J. Taylor; Walter James Taylor
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