Who hath believed our report?
&c.] Or "hearing" F1. Not what we hear, but others hear
from us; the doctrine of the Gospel, which is a report of the
love, grace, and mercy of God in Christ; of Christ himself, his
person, offices, obedience, sufferings, and death, and of free
and full salvation by him: it is a good report, a true and
faithful one, and to be believed, and yet there are always but
few that give credit to it; there were but few in the times of
the Prophet Isaiah that believed what he had before reported, or
was about to report, concerning the Messiah; and but few in the
times of Christ and his apostles, whom the prophet here
represented; for to those times are the words applied, ( John 12:38 ) ( Romans 10:16
) , the Jews had the report first made unto them, and saw the
facts that were done, and yet believed not; when Gentile kings,
and their subjects, listened with the most profound silence, and
heard with the greatest attention and reverence, as in the latter
part of the preceding chapter, to which some think this is
opposed; wherefore some begin the text with the adversative
particle "but". According to the Septuagint and Arabic versions,
the words are directed to God the Father, for they render them,
"Lord, who hath believed"; and so they are quoted in the above
places in the New Testament: and to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed?
meaning either the Gospel itself, the power of God unto
salvation, hidden from the generality of men; for though
externally, yet not internally revealed and made known; which to
do is the Lord's work, and is owing to his special grace: or
Christ, who is the power of God, by whom all the works of
creation, providence, grace, and salvation, are wrought; and by
whom the blessings of grace are dispensed; and by whom the Lord
upholds all things, and supports his people; and who was not
revealed but to a very few, as the true Messiah, as God's
salvation, and in them the hope of glory: or else the powerful
and efficacious grace of the Spirit, and the exertion and display
of it, which is necessary to a true and spiritual believing the
Gospel, and the report of it; which, unless it comes with the
power and Spirit of God, is ineffectual.