Dear Gramps,
I wanted to know in the Old Testament it talks about the two sticks being joined. My thought is the book of Judah is the Old Testament and the book of Joseph being the book of the New Testament. Is his correct. Thank you for answer.
Scott
Dear Scott,
I believe that the scripture you refer to is found in Ezekiel 37:16-19-
Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these? Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.
The stick of Judah is equated to the children of Israel who are companions to Judah, and the stick of Joseph is equated to the Ephraimites and those that are fellows, or companions to them.
When the tribes split under the kings Jeroboam and Rehoboam after the death of Solomon, the ten tribes, under Jeroboam, were taken captive into Babylonia. Rehoboam, who ruled over Judah and half the tribe of Benjamin, remained in Jerusalem. The ten tribes eventually were freed and made their way to the north countries and were lost to history. The Bible, from the time of Solomon, is a record of the tribe of Judah, who inhabited Jerusalem at the time of the Savior. So the New Testament does not deal with the Ephaimites, but rather with Judah, as does the Old Testament.
Manasseh and Ephraim, sons of Joseph, are cited in Isaiah 9:21 as being against Judah. So the stick of Ephraim must be a record of the Ephraimites, rather than of the Jews of the New Testament times. The record kept by Lehi and his descendants from 600 b.c. to 400 a.d., and known as the Book of Mormon, is the stick of Ephraim, as declared by the Lord in D&C 27:5-
Behold, this is wisdom in me; wherefore, marvel not, for the hour cometh that I will drink of the fruit of the vine with you on the earth, and with Moroni, whom I have sent unto you to reveal the Book of Mormon, containing the fullness of my everlasting gospel, to whom I have committed the keys of the record of the stick of Ephraim.
Gramps
