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.
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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.