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“I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert” (Psalm 102:6).
“For He [God the Father] hath made Him [the Lord Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
In our first verse today, the Lord Jesus (prophetically) compares Himself to a pelican and an owl. The pelican catches fish in the sea, but then stores them in the pouch beneath his lower beak, and then flies away to sit alone for hours while those fish digest. Then later it feeds these partially digested fish to its young. The owl too usually avoids places where there are a lot of people.
We might wonder why the Lord Jesus compares Himself to these two birds, for both were unclean under the law. (See if you can find the place where the law tells us this; it is found in Leviticus and repeated in Deuteronomy.)
We find the answer in our second verse. The Lord Jesus was not unclean, but He was “made to be sin for us,” and took upon Himself the judgment for our sins. Our sins were laid upon Him, and in the three hours of darkness on the cross, He became like those unclean birds. These verses emphasize how much He suffered for us.
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