John 12:38

John 12:38. That the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he said, Lord, who believed our report? and to whom was the arm of the lord revealed. I The quotation is from Isaiah 53:1; and one or two expressions in it require notice before we endeavour to ascertain its exact force and meaning, either as originally spoken by the prophet or as now applied by the Evangelist. By ‘report' we are to understand the burden of the prophet's message, the word as heard rather than as spoken (comp. 2 Samuel 4:4 in the Hebrew; Romans 10:16; 1 Thessalonians 2:13); and by ‘arm of the Lord,' the manifestation of His power alike in the deliverance of His people and in the destruction of His enemies (Deuteronomy 5:15; Isaiah 63:5). The words ‘that it might be fulfilled,' so frequently used by Matthew as he points but the harmony of each successive event with the Divine plan and counsel, here meet us for the first time in this Gospel. More is meant than what we commonly understand by the fulfilment of a prediction. That which in its principle and its partial realisation connected itself with the events of which the inspired prophet directly spoke is here declared to be ‘filled up,' to have received its complete accomplishment. By whom then, and in what circumstances, were the words of Isaiah originally spoken? We answer, By repentant Israel; by Israel after it has come to faith, and when it looks back sorrowfully upon the fact that the message of Jehovah's love, and the manifestations of His power, had been disregarded by the great body of the nation. In a similar spirit the Evangelist now looks back, seeing in the unbelief which rejected the Messiah Himself the ‘fulfilment' of that unbelief which had long before rejected the Messianic message of the prophet. Israel was ever the same: ‘As their fathers did, so did they' (Acts 7:51); they ‘filled up' the measure of their fathers (Matthew 23:32). This is the explanation of what caused John so much astonishment and sorrow. But it is not all.