But [the] angel of [the] Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Rise up and go southward on the way which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza the same is desert.
An angel pulls Philip out of a crowded, successful work and sends him down an empty road toward Gaza. Two questions follow. Why an angel and not the Spirit? And why would God move a preacher who is drawing crowds into an empty place?
The word translated "south" is not the usual one.
In the New Testament the word for "south" is νότος. Acts 8:26 is the exception. There the word is μεσημβρία, "mid-day," because the sun is in the south at mid-day — just as the Latin meridies, "mid-day," also means "south."
The same source describes the route:
Acts 8:26 means that the way from Jerusalem to Gaza was desert. Many think this refers to the road through Hebron, because after leaving that city the country is mostly desert.
Later in the chapter the Spirit speaks to Philip, not the angel.
God, in His providence, takes care of His servant; He sends an angel to direct him as to the road he is to take. But when it is a question of the gospel and dealing with souls, the Spirit takes the direction. "And the Spirit said to Philip, 'Go over and join this chariot.'" The angel and the Spirit of God go with the evangelist. The first stands for the providence of God, marking out the very road he is to take. The second stands for spiritual power in direct dealing with souls.
The angel's message says nothing at all about the man Philip is going to meet.
The angel said not a word about the soul of the Ethiopian. I do not know that the angel knew anything about it. The angel had to do what God told him: "Tell that man to go by the road that is a desert." And then comes the spiritual part, and here the Holy Spirit steps in.
There was a choice of route, and the one named was the less promising of the two.
There were two roads, it appears. One was through a populous part of the land, and the other was desert. Well, a desert is not the place an evangelist would choose. So the angel, acting in the providence of God, says to Philip: "You go that desert road." And one of the beautiful things about Philip is that he was not one to reason it out.
The order came while Philip's work in Samaria was thriving.
Philip shows the character of prompt, unquestioning obedience from a simple heart. He is called to leave his prosperous work. All his personal importance was tied to that work (if he had been seeking importance), and there people surrounded him with respect and affection. The place he was sent to was a desert. Philip's ready obedience does not think of the difference between Samaria and Gaza, but of the Lord's will: and he goes.
He also went without being told the point of the trip.
He at once obeyed, and went. But why he was taken from the fruitful field of his labours was as yet a secret unknown to him. In the path of obedience he got light cast on his way. Though the place he reached was called a desert, he did not find himself alone there.
The destination turned out to be a single traveller, not a crowd.
He does not say, "Ah, I won't be able to get a congregation, and I don't like a small one anyway; I want a big one." He has not a word about small or big. In fact, he was not going to have a congregation at all. He must be content with one single soul. That soul is precious beyond all calculation to God.
No angel speaks to us like this today.
But how is one to know now, seeing that angels and the Spirit do not speak to him as they did to Philip? Though not spoken to in this way, he ought to look for and expect divine guidance. Faith must be his guide. Circumstances are unsafe as a guide; they may rebuke and correct us in our path, but the eye of God must be our guide. "I will counsel you with My eye upon you" is the promise, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go."
- Order — An angel sends Philip south to the Gaza road. The word for "south" here means "mid-day," the hour when the sun stands in the south. That road ran through desert.
- Division of labour — The angel handles the road. The Spirit handles the man. Providence arranges the circumstances; the Spirit deals with souls.
- No reasoning — Two roads ran south. God chose the desert one, and Philip did not argue.
- No explanation — He left a thriving work not knowing why, and the light came as he walked in obedience, not before it.
- One soul — The whole errand was one traveller, priceless to God. That same God still guides His servants today, by faith rather than by an angel's voice.
And he rose up and went. And lo, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a man in power under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to worship at Jerusalem,
One verse holds a whole life: a foreigner from Africa, one of the top officials in his queen's court, heading home from a trip to Jerusalem he made to worship. God moved an evangelist off a busy mission field onto a desert road to meet him.
Philip left public work behind and went where he could expect nobody.
Is it not remarkable that Philip, the only man the New Testament plainly calls an evangelist, was sent away from public service to one man in the desert? (Acts 8).
He raised no objection about the size of the audience.
He does not say, "Ah, I will not be able to get a congregation. And anyway I don't like a small one; I want a big one." He has not a word about small or big. In fact, he was not going to have a congregation. He must be content with one single soul. That soul is precious beyond all calculation to God, if not even to himself.
The verse lists his credentials: court official, in charge of the whole royal treasury. They were not enough.
He was a man thoroughly trusted, with an immense amount of money going through his hands. He clearly had a high place in the trust of his royal mistress. But despite all that, there was a want in his heart. This man, we find, had gone up to Jerusalem to worship. No doubt he was a convert to the Jewish faith... Seeking after God, he had taken this thousand-mile journey from beyond the southernmost edge of Egypt.
He went to the right place for the right reason — and found nothing there. Writers trace this to the state of the temple itself.
Yet, whatever his greatness, his heart was not satisfied within that circle, and he had come as a worshipper to Jerusalem... Yet it was the very house of which the Lord had testified, "You have made it a den of robbers." God's own thought was that it should be a house of prayer for all nations, where even the Ethiopian might stretch out his hands to God. But in the hands of His people it had become a place of robbery and spoil. How then could the heart that truly sought Jehovah be satisfied there?
One earlier traveller had made the same journey to Jerusalem and gone home satisfied. Commentators set the two visits side by side.
The Queen of Sheba and the Ethiopian eunuch are both examples of this, but with a difference. The Queen got the blessing in Jerusalem, for everything was in divine order in her day. The eunuch got the blessing as he travelled away from Jerusalem. By then the Temple was an empty shell, and the Christ of God had been rejected.
His title was not only an honour. Under the law it shut him out, though the prophets had already spoken to men in his position.
He was also an outcast in religious terms, despite his high position and his heart for God. As a eunuch — and I have no doubt the word is meant literally — he could not come into the congregation of the Lord (Deut. 23:1). That held true whatever precious assurances of future blessing there might be for him (Isa. 56:3-5).
On the road home he had the Scriptures open. Commentators make that the turning point of the story.
We find him in his chariot, reading the prophet Isaiah. And you can depend on it, now as then. If you find a man who has got hold of the Scriptures and is reading them, you will notice that God sends some Philip to that man's side, sooner or later. Yes, if you are in downright earnest to get the truth, you will get it.
Where he came from matters. Commentators set his story beside the two conversions that follow in Acts.
The Ethiopian was a son of Ham. Saul, the Jew, was a son of Shem. Cornelius, the Roman, was a son of Japheth. That is one man from each of the three families of mankind after the flood. It shows the universal reach of the gospel of the grace of God, and its power. We would have put the centurion first and the African last. But God's ways are not our ways. He knows how to rebuke our pride, and with Him the last shall be first.
- Seeking — he travelled a thousand miles to worship and still came home with a want in his heart. Jerusalem could not fill it.
- Barred — the law shut a eunuch out of the congregation, yet the prophets held out future blessing for him. The man religion shut out is the man grace runs after.
- Reading — he had the Scriptures and was reading them. Where a person is in earnest with the Bible, God sends a Philip.
- Sent — the one man the New Testament names as an evangelist left public work for one traveller. He never asked whether the crowd would be big or small.
- Reaching — a son of Ham first, then Shem, then Japheth. God's order rebukes our pride and shows the gospel reaching the whole human race.
was returning and sitting in his chariot and he was reading the prophet Esaias.
A high official is riding home along a desert road, far from Jerusalem, with a scroll of Isaiah open in front of him. He has been up to worship, and two questions hang over him: why the long journey, and why is he still reading?
His title marks him out as the queen's treasurer, in charge of all her money. Yet the reason he was on that road at all was that his position had not satisfied him.
He was a man thoroughly trusted, with an immense amount of money going through his hands. He clearly held a high place in the trust of the queen he served. But despite all that, there was something missing in his heart. This man, we find, had gone up to Jerusalem to worship. No doubt he was a Jewish proselyte... He was seeking God, so he had made this thousand-mile journey from a land beyond the southern edge of Egypt.
The word "returning" carries the weight of the verse. He had gone up to the one place on earth where people looked for God's blessing. He came back the same man.
He was going back without the blessing that his earnest heart yearned after. He had gone up to the great city of solemn feasts, but the blessing was no longer to be found there... Jerusalem had this added to her other sins, that when the blessing had come down from heaven, she would not have it. She despised the Holy Spirit just as she had despised the Messiah. No wonder, then, that this man who had gone up to Jerusalem to worship was heading home with the longings of his heart still unmet.
Under the law, a eunuch was shut out of the assembly of the Lord. So his disappointment ran deeper than a wasted trip. He turned to the prophets like a man with nowhere else to go, and what he found there brought him a sorrow he could not explain.
He was also an outcast in religion, despite his high position and his heart for God. As a eunuch he could not come into the congregation of the Lord (Deut. 23:1), whatever precious assurances of future blessing there might be for him (Isa. 56:3-5). He sits in his chariot on his way back from the city of hollow forms and empty ceremonies. He turns to the pages of the prophets, and to Isaiah most of all, to find comfort. But sorrow met him here too, and a sorrow he could not see into: the sorrows of One from whom Israel, it seemed, had turned, One led as a sheep to the slaughter, silent as a lamb before its shearers, His judgment taken away, His life taken from the earth. The cloud lies over it hopelessly, as it seems to him, unless someone guides him; and he has no one.
He was not skimming to pass the miles. The book had such a hold on him that a stranger's voice in that empty place did not startle him.
The Word of God was addressing his soul. The Prophet Isaiah was taking him out of himself. He was not startled by the stranger's voice in that desert place. All he cared for, all he thought of, was the secret of the Book... And Philip let him into the secret that he was searching.
The same detail is drawn out as a picture of what an anxious person does with an empty hour on a journey.
He is also a beautiful example of an anxious soul. When alone and with nothing to do, he reads the prophet Isaiah. He thinks over the prophecy of the suffering, unresisting Lamb of God. But the moment of light and deliverance had come.
Writers turn the scene into a promise. God does not leave an earnest reader without help.
We find him in his chariot, reading the prophet Isaiah. And you can count on this, now as then: find a man who has got hold of the Scriptures and is reading them, and you will see God send some Philip to that man's side, sooner or later. Yes, if you are in downright earnest to get the truth, you will get it. This man was in earnest in seeking for light, and the knowledge of God. God saw this, and prepared the way for his receiving what he sought.
- The road out. A man trusted with a queen's whole treasury travelled a thousand miles to worship. High position had left something missing in his heart.
- The road back. He came home unsatisfied. The blessing was no longer in Jerusalem: the city had refused it when it came down from heaven.
- The open book. The law shut him out of the congregation, so he turned to Isaiah for comfort. There he met a sorrow he could not explain without a guide.
- The absorbed reader. Scripture had taken him out of himself. A stranger's voice in the desert did not startle him. He wanted only the secret of the Book.
- The rule proved. Find someone in earnest with the Scriptures open, and God sends a Philip to his side sooner or later.
And the Spirit said to Philip, Approach and join this chariot.
Philip has just seen crowds in Samaria turn to Christ, and now he is on a desert road as a stranger's chariot rolls by. One short sentence redirects him, and everything turns on who speaks: the Spirit, not the angel of the earlier verses.
An angel handled the travel directions; the Spirit handles the man. Commentators draw a clear line between the two kinds of leading. They also note that no evangelist would have chosen this road.
The angel of the Lord directs him. There were two roads, and an evangelist would not have chosen the desert one. But the object of God's grace was travelling by this one; and God uses an angel here, as He always does in His providence... But here it is not an angel but "the Spirit" that said to Philip, "Go over and join this chariot." Angels have to do with circumstances, the Spirit leads as to souls.
Both kinds of leading were at work in that hour, and we notice one of them far more than the other.
As it was then, so it is now. Yet we think more readily of the guidance of the Spirit than of the direction of providence. May we trust God for everything! He changes not!
The command came to a man in the middle of a successful campaign, where he was known and loved.
Philip shows the character of prompt, unquestioning obedience with a simple heart. He is called to leave his prosperous work. That work carried all his personal importance (if he had been seeking it), and there people surrounded him with respect and affection... Philip's ready obedience does not weigh the difference between Samaria and Gaza. It looks at the Lord's will, and he goes. The gospel now spreads to Gentiles who had joined the Jewish faith, and makes its way to the heart of Ethiopia.
after_reason_placeholder:
The order matters. Philip was already on the desert road, obeying his first orders, before the Spirit gave him anything to do there.
Circumstances do not guide him; the Lord does... Because he is in the path of obedience, the Spirit is free to use him. The power of the Spirit is the only power for the Lord's work, and only in the path of obedience can a servant know that power. Being in that path, Philip hears the Spirit say, "Go over and join this chariot." He is in the path of obedience and in the power of the Holy Spirit, and he is also in the energy of divine affection. Another writer has linked this with Luke 15, where the father ran to meet his lost son. Here the servant, in tune with the heart of God, runs to carry the good news of salvation to the thirsty soul.
The instruction stops short of what we might expect. Philip is told to draw alongside, not to climb aboard — the invitation into the carriage comes later, from the traveller himself.
He always directs us to the right person, if only we are willing and ready, like Philip, to go at the Lord's bidding... "Go near." God does not say, Go into the chariot. Oh no! God says, "Go near, and join yourself to this chariot."
Walking up to a high official uninvited took nerve. But the Spirit was already at work on the other side too.
A stranger to that eunuch made bold to address him. Naturally he might have pushed him away. Why should that plain man dare to intrude on such a high official? He had no following, not even one servant to mark his rank... But when the Spirit prepares hearts, they are ready to welcome help. The outward appearance of the person, or the strangeness of such a meeting, raises no objection in the mind of a true inquirer.
Commentators are careful here: the manner has changed, the reality has not.
It was not an angel, but the Spirit whose voice told him to draw near to the anxious Ethiopian official. We may not hear Him as Philip did, but He still gives us guidance of the same kind in dealing with souls. The Spirit knows their need. In love He works through Christ's members and servants, who often have no idea what He is going to do. The love of the Spirit is a real thing, as well as the love of Christ.
- Providence, then person. The angel picked the road; the Spirit picked the man. Angels deal with circumstances, the Spirit deals with souls — and both were at work in the same hour.
- Obedience unlocks it. Philip was already walking the desert road before the word came. The Spirit is free to use a servant who is already in the path of obedience.
- Cost, then reach. He left a thriving work and a city that loved him, and never weighed Samaria against Gaza. Through that one obedience the gospel travelled to Ethiopia.
- Near, not in. God did not say, Go into the chariot. He said, Go near — and the Spirit guides a willing servant to the right person.
- Still true. We may not hear the voice as Philip did. But the Spirit still knows what souls need, and works through servants who have no idea what He is about to do.