Day 34: Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8: 25-40)
It simply made no sense to the Ethiopian. In all of his studies, learning to keep accounts, he had never read anything as confounding as these words of a prophet named Isaiah. Setting the book down in front of him, he buried his head in his hands. “Oh God, I want to understand! Please help me know what this means! Show me, somehow!”
Philip’s time in Samaria had come to an abrupt end. Now God was calling him simply to “go south.” Obeying God’s voice, he was heading toward Gaza when he came upon a beautiful chariot. “Surely this belongs to a wealthy man,” Philip thought. But his ramblings were inter-rupted by the Spirit’s voice once again. “Go up to him and his chariot,” was the simple command.
Hearing the man reading from Isaiah, Philip approached him and asked whether or not he understood what he was reading. Indicating that he couldn’t possibly understand without help, Philip saw an open door and began to minister to him. Beginning with the very passage the eunuch had just been reading, Philip preached Jesus to him, sharing with him the entire gospel of salvation. Philip was unaware that this man was returning from Jerusalem where he had gone to worship a God he didn’t yet know, and that he had, just moments before, asked God to answer his questions about what he was reading in Isaiah. God answered the Ethiopian’s prayer by using Phillip to lead the man to believe that Jesus was God’s very own Son and Messiah! A divine appointment indeed!
For awhile they traveled together in the chariot, but it wasn’t long before they came upon a body of water. The man desired greatly to be baptized into the faith, and Philip immediately obliged. Because of Philip’s obedience to the Spirit’s call, the eternity of the Ethiopian eunuch was changed forever. Who knows how many came to a saving knowledge of Christ through this man who couldn’t understand Isaiah.
Do you know the voice of the Spirit? Do you obey Him when He speaks to you, or do His plans seem too strange to obey? Are you sharing the message of Christ with others? If you are, do you share from where YOU are at in understanding the gospel, or from where THEY are?
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