This haftarah records a symbolic act God instructs Ezekiel to perform: take one stick and write on it for Judah and the Israelites associated with it, take a second stick and write on it for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel associated with it, then join the two sticks together in his hand so that they become one, visibly demonstrating a future reunification to a people who have known their kingdom as divided for generations.
Ezekiel is told to explain the sign plainly when his audience asks what it means: God will take the descendants of Israel from among the nations where they have been scattered, gather them from every side, and make them one nation in their own land, under one king, no longer divided into two kingdoms or into two nations at all, ending the split that had separated the northern and southern tribes since the era of Solomon's successors.
The haftarah closes describing an everlasting covenant of peace, a permanent dwelling of God's presence among this reunified people, and the nations recognizing that God sanctifies Israel once His sanctuary is established among them forever, a vision of restoration answering directly to the political division the sign act was built to address.