Philip And The Ethiopian Eunuch Series

Samaria is an area that lies north of Jerusalem. Now Philip is told to go way down south. What we know as the Gaza strip is south, over along the Mediterranean. This was the trade route down into Egypt and Ethiopia. He would probably travel through Jerusalem to get there.

Philip had been speaking to multitudes in Samaria, and now he is sent down to a desert. He is leaving a place where there has been a great movement of the Spirit of God, to go into a place, a desert, where there is nobody. However, when he gets there, he finds that God does have someone to whom he is to witness.

“This is a desert road” perhaps may be better stated: “This place [that is, Gaza] is deserted.” Old Gaza, formerly one of the five chief cities of the Philistines, was situated about two miles from the sea, had been destroyed by Alexander and was at this time “deserted.” New Gaza, on the coast, was not destroyed until A.D. 66. The highway is referred to as “the desert road,” but the expression may refer to either a desert road or a desert city. Old Gaza was called Desert Gaza.

You and I are not likely to have angels instruct us, but we can know the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our witnessing, if we are walking in the Spirit and praying for God’s direction.

27 And he rose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of the Can'dace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship

We have come to the very wonderful account of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch, a son of Ham. You will notice from this account, as well as the accounts of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus and Cornelius (which is coming up), that three factors must be brought into focus before there can be a conversion. All three of these are evident in the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch.

The work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had taken this man Philip to Samaria where there had been a great moving of the Spirit of God. Then the Holy Spirit moved him down to Gaza, and again we see His working in the heart of the Ethiopian eunuch. The Spirit of God had gone ahead to prepare the heart of the Ethiopian and also to prepare the messenger.

The Word of God. “So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). The Word of God is the second essential component. The Holy Spirit will take the things of Christ and will reveal them to an individual. It is the Spirit of God using the Word of God. But, wait a minute, there must be a human instrument.

The man of God. The Spirit of God uses the man of God who delivers the Word of God to produce a son of God, one who is born again. We will see this in the record of the conversion of this Ethiopian eunuch.

The Ethiopians were the Nubian race dwelling in the Nile region south of Egypt proper. The country included all the land from Aswan in southern Egypt to Khartoum, Sedan. The Bible calls this area Ethiopia, but it is not the country we know as Ethiopia. It is only in modern times that they have been confused with the Abyssinians, who ethnologically and linguistically are Semitic. He is a eunuch, and therefore would be excluded by the Law from the “assembly of the Lord.” I believe he was the first of the African race to become a Christian. It is now established that at least three centuries before Christ, Greek literature and thought had permeated that Central African district, and that a most remarkable civilization was realized under Candace. Probably this word Candace is not the name of a woman, but rather a title, like Pharaoh. Governmental power rested in the hands of Candace, since the royal son was worshipped as an offspring of the sun, and was therefore above such mundane activities as ruling over a nation. Rulership was therefore vested with the queen-mother.