Ezekiel 18 starts with a proverb, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge’. What it means is that the children have paid for the sins of their father’s. Sometimes the Fathers pay for the sins of their children too.

In the book of Ezekiel however, the Lord is saying, NO MORE!

Each man will account for his own sin. Fathers will not pay for their sons or vice versa. However, when we look at the Lord Jesus Christ, in a way, He set this rule aside so that He could pay for our sins. We should have been condemned to die but He bore the punishment of our sins on himself. Vs. 23 says the Lord does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked. And yet, in some strange way, the bible records that it pleased the Lord to bruise His Son (Is 53:10 & 11).

May we pause here and contemplate on this irony. How could God who did not take pleasure in the death of the wicked be pleased to bruise His well beloved Son? The Son brought pleasure to the Father by His act of obedience- even unto death on the cross. Vs. 11 talks about the travail of His soul (picture of birth pains); that Christ should go through travail so that each one of us could be born into His kingdom and thus in some mysterious way be part of that pleasure.

Oh! that we could in any way bring pleasure to the Heart of God is beyond comprehension.

Thou art the Everlasting Word, the Father’s only Son, God manifestly seen and heard and heaven’s beloved Son!

But the high mysteries of His name, the creature’s grasp transcend, the father’s only glorious claim! The Son can comprehend.

Ps 40: 6-8 is a messianic psalm. We see the same psalm quoted in Heb10:5-7, with a small difference. In the Psalms, we see ears pierced and Hebrews talks about a body prepared. The piercing of ears is first talked about in Exodus 21, with reference to a bond slave who wishes to continue in service of his master after the year of jubilee. He is to pierce his ear as a sign of loyalty. In the Psalm, the picture of Christ having His ear pierced is a symbol of His total obedience and submission to the Father. In Hebrew, that prophesy has already been fulfilled in that he offered up His Body as a sacrifice for sin. Christ came to do the will of the Father. The obedient spotless Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world!

Oh Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God! I love the Holy Lamb of God, Oh wash me in His precious blood, my Jesus Christ the Lamb of God!