Ezekiel 20:18-26

Thus slighted and despised by the fathers, the Lord looked to their children, that the rising generation might not be rebellious as their fathers had been. But the sin of rebellion, like a chain of many links, the Lord found to run alike in father and son. The Lord therefore gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live. This could not refer to the law of God given, on Mount Sinai, for the Apostle saith, that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. Romans 7:12. Nevertheless, in one sense, (and so the Apostle considers it), such was and is the nature of the law, that no man could live by it or have life from it. But by the law is the knowledge of sin; and the knowledge of sin loudly proclaims Christ. Reader! it will be a blessed improvement of this scripture, if, from the perusal of it, such effects are wrought in our hearts to lead us to Christ.