Israel under Solomon had reached
the pinnacle of its empire. On the death of Solomon, Rheoboam ascended to the
throne, and unwisely threatened not only to continue the heavy taxes levied under
his father, but to increase the tax burdens. A dynamic leader from the tribe of
Joseph through the lineage of Ephraim, by the name of Jeroboam, led an
insurrection on Judah and drew away ten and one-half of the tribes to establish
the northern kingdom, which subsequently was called the kingdom of Israel, the
kingdom of Joseph or Ephraim. (See Amos 5:4-6; Isa. 7:1, 2; Hos. 5:9-15) Now there
was no longer one kingdom one sceptre, but two kingdoms and two sceptres. Moreoever,
Jeroboam lost no time in introducing the worship of strange gods among his
people. One of the great themes of the prophets became the restoration of
Israel in the latter days under one king or sceptre and under one God, Jehovah.
With this background of the divided
kingdom in mind, we can proceed to an interpretation of Ezekiel’s prophecy. The
Lord told Ezekiel to take two pieces of wood which would become symbols for
something and to write the names of the two governing tribes upon them,
including their fellows or the various tribes comprising the two kingdoms.
These pieces of wood should then be held before the eyes of the people and when
the people should ask the meaning of these, Ezekiel was to tell them the Lord would
take the Israelites from among the heathen nations whither they would be
scattered in the days of their dispersion, and would return them to their own
land. The two kingdoms would no longer be separate, but would become one, and
all of Israel would return to the worship of Jehovah, the one true God. The
writer submits that since Ezekiel had no access to the national sceptres of
Judah and Israel (Ephraim), the Lord had him take the two pieces of wood and
make symbolic sceptres from them. Since the terms sceptres and tribes are
derived from the same words in Hebrew, Ezekiel is seen to be employing metaphor
to tell the Jews that God would take the two kingdoms with the tribes
comprising their members or “fellows” which were under the sceptres of Judah
and Ephraim and would join them into one great tribe or kingdom.
If this conclusion is correct,
the sticks in this prophecy have nothing to do with books, but have
symbolically become what sceptres and rods have been throughout all of the Old
Testament. It would be well at this point to once again compare Numbers 17:1-3,
to see that the writing of a name of a tribe upon the tribal sceptre or rod
would be a symbol the people in Ezekiel’s day and culture would understand.
But the discussion does not end
at this point since one might say, Ah, yes, but that is just your
interpretation and who are you to doubt a hundred and thirty years of tradition?
Let us consider the two very vital supporting scriptures which have doubtless
caused all the fuss in the first place. In August of 1830, while preparing for
a religious service at which the sacrament of bread and wine was to be administered,
the Prophet Joseph set out to procure wine for the occasion. He was met by a
heavenly messenger and part of what was said to him at that time is quoted
here:
Wherefore, a commandment I give
unto you that you shall not purchase wine neither strong drink of your enemies;
wherefore, you shall partake of none except it is made new among you; yea, in
this my Father’s kingdom which shall be built up on the earth. 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 fulness of my everlasting
gospel, to whom I have committed the keys of the record of the stick of
Ephraim . . . (Doc. & Cov. 27:3-5)
The writer considers this one of
the most fascinating passages in the latter-day revelations because it is
spoken in the metaphor of the ancient Near East. You will notice that the
heavenly messenger did not say the Book of Mormon is the stick of
Ephraim but that it is the record of the stick. If this is the record of
the stick, then what is the stick itself? The stick is none other than the
tribe of Ephraim, and the Book of Mormon is their record. How faithfully this
ties in with the other scriptures which we shall now consider:
For behold, I shall speak unto
the Jews and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the Nephites and
they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the other tribes of the
house of Israel, which I have led away, and they shall write it; and I shall
also speak unto all the nations of the earth and they shall write it. And it
shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the
Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and the Nephites and the Jews shall
have the words of the lost tribes of Israel; and the lost tribes of Israel
shall have the words of the Nephites and the Jews. (2 Nephi 29:12, 13) (Italics
ours)
When the heavenly messenger said
the Book of Mormon is the record of the stick he may quite likely have had
reference to this very Book of Mormon prophecy. It is coincidental that the
King James translators should have called the ‘etz in Ezekiel a stick
rather than a piece of wood, and that the heavenly messenger should likewise
have use the word stick. However, the wording of the messenger’s warning to
Joseph indicates that the word he used as stick was likely shebet, not ‘etz.
In conclusion, may we not leave
Ezekiel’s prophecy as what it was intended to be—one of the most expressive
among all those having to do with the restoration of Israel and the
establishment of the Messianic Kingdom?
And may we not let the Book of Mormon
remain what it is—the record of the tribe of Ephraim? There has been some very scholarly
research made in an effort to verify the fact that ancient records were written
on scrolls wrapped around pieces of wood, or were actually written on pieces of
wood. However, since Nephi tells us that there will actually be the joining of
many records before the restoration of all things is complete, let us not
restrict this joining of records to Judah and Joseph alone. Besides it somehow
seems demeaning to the cause to have to hunt for evidence to make Ezekiel say
something which a careful reading renders highly improbable in the first place.
How, then, could missionaries
continue to use the Ezekiel prophecy for the benefit of evidencing the Book of
Mormon? Could they not point out that since the tribe or nation of Judah kept a
record which we call the Bible, that it is only reasonable to believe others
may have kept records also? The words of Nephi could then be quoted and the
missionary could bear his witness to the face that the Book of Mormon is the
record of one of these groups of people—the tribe of Joseph.
The question concerning the
interpretation of Ezekiel’s prophecy came before the writer during the course
of his studies of the Hebrew language and of the Old Testament. He feels that
there may be some justification for further consideration of this prophecy than
that which has become traditional. (Douglas W. Stott, “Ezekiel’s
Prophecy of Sticks,” Salt Lake Institute of Religion devotional and
fireside speeches, April 1964, pp. 16-19)
The use of לוּחַ in the text of Ezekiel 37:16 of Targum Jonathan
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