The Two Sticks and The Uniting Of Israel.
‘The word of Yahweh came again to me saying, “And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel his companions'. Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions'. And join them for yourself, one to another, into one stick, that they may become one in your hand.” '
The wording on the sticks would seem to confirm that Israelites associated with Judah were included in the first stick, and therefore that the second included people of the northern kingdom scattered throughout the known world. However in Ezekiel the term ‘Israel' is very flexible and also includes Judah so that we cannot be sure. The reference may be to the combination of tribes that originally made up Judah. But whichever is so the emphasis is on the necessity for the people of God to be one in heart, mind and spirit.
The sticks were presumably ‘joined' in prophetic mime by the bottom end of one and the top end of the other being pushed into the closed fist so as to look one, a stick coming out from each side.