Charles Spurgeon Commentary Isaiah 53

Who has believed our report?

All the prophets reported what had been revealed to them concerning Christ; they testified what they knew regarding Jesus of Nazareth, the suffering Saviour. Yet how few, comparatively, of the Jewish people—how few, indeed, of any people, compared with the great mass of mankind—accepted their testimony and believed their report? No blessing can come through that report if it is not believed, and this is the sorrow of the Lord's servants in every age, that so many refuse to believe it. Who has believed our report?

And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

For God's power both produces and accompanies faith. No one believes in Christ unless the arm of the Lord is revealed, or made bare, so as to work faith in them. This is the great grief of God's ministers today, that so often we have to go back to our homes and cry, Who hath believed our report? It is not a doubtful report, it is not an incredible message, it is not a matter of indifference to our hearers; but it is an all-important declaration the accuracy of which is guaranteed by the God of truth, yet who has believed it?

Oh, that the arm of the Lord were made bare in the hearts of multitudes of men! What was the reason for this unbelief in the case of the Jews to whom the prophet spoke, and of those to whom the Messiah afterwards came? It was the lowly estate of Christ that caused them to stumble, and they asked, in contempt, Is not this the carpenter's son? They looked for external pomp and martial prowess, so they could not perceive the internal beauty and majestic holiness of the Lord Jesus.

Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? (Isaiah 53:1)

This is a cause for sorrow upon sorrow — for the prophets to have God's message to deliver, and yet for people to reject it — for them to have to tell it, but to tell it in vain. Yet, dear friends, this has been the lot of some of God's most faithful servants in all ages, and we must not complain if it should be our lot also.

I should not have voluntarily chosen to be Jeremiah, the weeping prophet; yet, I think, no one of God's servants deserves greater honor than he does, for he continued bravely to deliver his Master's message even when none believed him, and all rejected his testimony. Isaiah links himself with all the other prophets who had been rejected, and he says, "Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? (Isaiah 53:1)

It is sometimes the lot of God's most faithful servants to labour unsuccessfully. As old Thomas Fuller quaintly says, "He makes some to be as the clouds that empty their rain over Arabia the stony while others are pouring down their showers over Arabia the happy." Yet we are accepted with God, not according to our success, but according to our faithfulness. Still, no true minister of Christ can be contented unless men believe his report. It will be a matter for sighing and groaning if unbelief be the only answer to our earnest declarations concerning Christ.

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed!

It is no new thing for gospel ministers to be disappointed. Even Isaiah, the most Evangelical of all the prophets, who might well be placed at the head of the College of Preachers, feels compelled to say, in the name of all that sacred brotherhood, Who hath believed our report? The report was a very plain one, a very earnest one, and very full of noble matter. Men ought to have believed it, but they did not, and they never will unless God's arm is revealed, for faith is the product of Omnipotence, and men never believe in Christ till God stretches out his arm.

Where was the difficulty of believing the report about Christ? Isaiah tells us about him, and as we listen, we understand why so many do not believe on him.

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation?

for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Those wicked men were his enemies because he did "the thing that good is." Those who rewarded him evil for good were his adversaries, even as they are ours.