The Ethiopian Eunuch
Acts 8:26-40
Chapter eight of Acts begins with the spreading of the gospel out of Jerusalem. Saul’s (Paul) persecution of the Christians there had driven everyone out but the apostles from Jerusalem. These persecuted Christians spread out to the Judean villages like dandelion seeds and sowed the gospel there. Afterward, Philip went into Samaria and multitudes of Samaritans accepted Christ. One wonders why God would mess with something that was going so well with Phillip. But God sent Peter there, and this freed up Phillip for the next mission the Spirit had for him. Today, we find out what that mission was.
The passage begins with the Holy Spirit telling Phillip to take the road less traveled to Gaza. He had already come back to Jerusalem at this time, so he left from there to go down the desert road. One of the characteristics of the desert was its dryness. One could die of thirst there, and few took that road.
There would be one other traveler on that road that day. He was a high official of Queen Candace of Ethiopia and his chariot driver. We gather from the text that he had come to Jerusalem to worship. Although eunuch was a term which could just refer to a high government official, it seems likely as we shall see later that this man was physically a eunuch. A eunuch was not allowed into the Temple building proper, even if he was a Jew. Even though some Jews in the time of Jeremiah had escaped into Ethiopia and probably intermarried with the African inhabitants, he would have stuck out at the Temple grounds. If he had tried to enter the Temple, he would have probably been examined and the secret revealed. It was quite an act of faith for a second-class proselyte to undergo the journey to Jerusalem. Even though he was held in authority in his own country, he was of diminished stature there.
He was allowed some privilege as he was well-dressed and had a retinue with him. Money and the willingness to spend it would allow him to purchase the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. As the scroll was hand copied and the cost of parchment high, it would have cost him a pretty penny to get it. I would guess it was a Greek copy and not a Hebrew one. Even the Jews did not speak Hebrew, but Aramaic. There were a number of Greek-speaking Jews in Jerusalem, so there were Greek language scrolls available at a cost. If it was a Hebrew copy, then it would demonstrate even more extraordinary faith as the eunuch would have had to learn Hebrew. He obviously could read the scroll enough to question Phillip what it meant.
It is ironic that a man on foot should overcome a horse-drawn chariot in the desert. The eunuch might have taken the back road to read it. If the scroll was of the entire book, it would have taken some time to get to Isaiah 53. There was no fast forward or computer search that opened you to the right place. So the eunuch may have travelled quite a few miles before Philip go to him.
The first thing we see from the text is that the Hold Spirit arranged for this meeting. It was no chance encounter. Phillip had a directive from the Spirit, but we have no indication that the eunuch did. He got the scroll on his own free will, unaware as far as I can tell why the Spirit secretly put the desire in his heart to do. He made the choice to go down that road less-travelled to read it. To the eunuch, what might have seemed like a chance encounter was not by chance at all.
As Isaiah is a large book, it is possible that it was on two rather than one scroll. We don’t know exactly where the eunuch started, but it was at least several chapters before he got to the 53rd chapter which he was reading and puzzling over before the Spirit told Phillip to run ahead and catch the chariot. The text said he heard the eunuch reading from 53rd chapter of Isaiah. As Phillip was a Greek-speaking Jew, he would have understood where the eunuch was reading from. So an ordinary man comes to the high official and ask him if he understood the passage he was reading from. There is a sense of irony here as protocol usually required a commoner to remain silent until asked by a social superior. The eunuch answered that he could not unless someone guided him like his driver guided his chariot. He invited Phillip to come up and join him in the chariot. The eunuch asked him whether the 53rd chapter of Isaiah referred to Isaiah or another man. The Ethiopian eunuch was not alone in his wonderment. If he had asked the Jews in Jerusalem, he might have gotten one of several answers. Some would have said it was Isaiah, others Israel, and yet others a priestly messiah who was different from the Davidic Messiah. This passage cannot be rightly understood until it finds its interpretation in Christ.
So having been asked, Phillip then gives the eunuch the Christian interpretation. Jesus was that other that Isaiah was referring to. Phillip starts in Isaiah 53 and proceeds to show how Jesus was the fulfillment of that prophecy.
As Phillip ended the interpretation, suddenly in the middle of the desert, water appeared. Somehow the eunuch had learned about the importance of baptism, whether he had just heard it from Phillip or got it from somewhere else I don’t know. But the eunuch knew he had to be baptized and that water had appeared as a confirmation. So he asked whether he could be baptized. The text of Phillips response is a little difficult as not all ancient texts have the words that he could “if he believed with all his heart.” But Phillip affirmed that the eunuch could be baptized and did so.
What was not possible for the eunuch, that he be circumcised if he wanted to join the people of God, was now made possible by circumcision’s replacement, which is baptism. Women could not be circumcised any more than the eunuch could. But all could be baptized. They could now participate fully and equally in the promise of Abraham as his descendants. One who was made a eunuch by men would go back to Ethiopia and found a church there. The man who could have no children would become father of the Ethiopic church. It says that after Phillip left him, the eunuch went away rejoicing. Joy is always the result in the book of Acts when people come to faith in Jesus Christ.
Warren Gage makes an interesting point here. Did the eunuch continue to read the scroll of Isaiah from the place where he had been reading in the 53rd chapter? If he had, he would have soon read these words in Isaiah 54:1 “Sing O barren, who did not bear; break forth in singing and cry aloud, for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.” In Isaiah 56:3 it says that the eunuch shall no longer call himself a dry tree. The eunuch’s joy could only have been magnified by reading these verses.
What we learn from this text is that the LORD is the one who guides the path of His people. Sometimes it might be in an audible way, like the Spirit speaking to Phillip. Sometimes it might be behind the scenes as in the preparation of the eunuch. Either way, the work and the glory belongs to God. The eunuch did not figure it out for himself, but the Spirit arranged for one of His human servants. The preaching of the gospel is the work of men and not of the Holy Spirit or even angels. The LORD has graciously allowed jars of clay to tell the good news about Jesus Christ to other jars of clay. We must pray that the LORD guide us in our ministry to reach souls who are asking questions.
We also learn that God’s ways are not our own ways. We would have left Phillip in Samaria because he was getting great results. We often see success by human understanding, by numbers and money. These are the statistics we use to guage the success or failure of a ministry. If we thought about it, and saw the need to send a missionary to Ethiopia, we would have sent someone else. But God sends Peter and the other apostles to Samaria and takes Philip the layman. The result though as we can see was a new church which is the oldest church in Africa and numbers in the millions. God knows best.
Sometimes it seems like God sends His servants into exile, into the middle of nowhere. Yet it is in the desert where God often works the greatest of His miracles, just like he did wit the Children of Israel. God shows his glory by making something out of nothing. He makes water out of sand so that an Ethiopian who would be forever barred from the Temple and to render holy office in Israel to someone useful to His service. If He can make something out of nothing, surely He can make something out of you. And when he does, it should become a cause of your rejoicing. This is the sure certification of your ministry. God wants His people to go from mourning to rejoicing, replacing ashes with beauty. O, if we could only see a little water in our spiritual desert today, which unfortunately is true in so many of our churches today. O for revival of our dry spirits! O to see the power of God take hold of us and guide us. May this be our earnest expectation. Let us be dry trees no longer.
