Acts 8:28–35

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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!

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

It was an admission that he could not understand without a teacher. It was almost a confession of the great fact: whatever human learning may boast, the unaided mind of man cannot grasp the truth of God at all.

As a eunuch — if we take that literally, as I do not doubt we should — he could not enter the assembly of the Lord (Deuteronomy 23:1), whatever precious promises of future blessing there were for him (Isaiah 56:3-5). Sitting in his chariot, returning from the city of empty forms and barren ceremonies, he turns naturally to the prophets, and to Isaiah most of all, to find comfort. But here too he met sorrow, of a kind he could not penetrate: the sorrows of One from whom Israel seemed to have turned, One led as a sheep to the slaughter... He is reading this aloud as he overtakes Philip on the road. It is as if he wanted to press on himself something that ought to have meaning for him, but has none. The cloud hangs over it, and to him it looks hopeless without some guide. He has none.

Sadly, it was then as it is now in Christendom. The vision of Him who came to make God known, who otherwise cannot be known, passes from the learned to the unlearned. It is as if the divine answer to every riddle were itself the one riddle nobody can solve. Ask the learned man to read, and he says, I cannot, for it is sealed. Ask the unlearned man, and he excuses himself, I am not learned. Faith alone can understand: so it is, and so it ought to be.

But no one can understand these divine things unless the great and only teacher guides him — the Holy Spirit. This was the eunuch's difficulty; Philip was the Spirit's chosen instrument for teaching him.

How well it will be to ask ourselves how far we realise in practice that a Divine Person lives in us. He is the perfect Judge of all doctrine, the Teacher of all teachers. It can never be humility to forget that He is with us. If we listen to Him, we shall never be deceived or led astray... This brings the conscience into exercise before God. It frees us from all indifference about teachers — for the Spirit uses His instruments with us as He pleases — and at the same time from all exaggerated deference to them.

Why should that plain man, with no escort, not even one attendant to mark his rank, presume to intrude on such a high official?... But when the Spirit prepares hearts, they are ready to welcome help; and the outward appearance of the person, or the strangeness of such a meeting, raises no objection in the mind of a true inquirer... He needed help. He confessed it. And believing Philip could give it, he begged him to come up and sit with him. The servant of Candace and the servant of the Lord were now together. The eunuch was probably used to people listening to him with respect. Now he sat as a pupil at the feet of the evangelist.

One great charm of the passage before us is this — I see that God has His eye on an anxious man. He will, in a sense, interrupt the blessed work of His grace elsewhere, at least through one particular channel, to meet that anxious man... See what He does. He calls Philip away from his remarkable evangelistic work in Samaria and sends him down into the desert to meet one man. That is God.

These verses emphasise the unjust and twisted judgement passed on the Lord Jesus. They also show how He received everything from God. He did not protest His innocence or argue against the sentence. He quietly accepted the injustice, knowing that a deeper purpose was in view.

Verse 7 emphasises His silence before His accusers. When men are treated harshly and unjustly, they protest. That is natural and normal. So His silence went against all experience, and the Gospels record it — Matthew 27:11-14; Mark 15:3-4; Luke 23:9; John 19:9. A sheep really is silent before the shearers, as anyone can see today by watching shearers at work. But He was not like a sheep being sheared. He was like a lamb led to the slaughter. He was indeed "the Lamb of God," as John the Baptist announced, and yet no word of protest left His lips.

He could have thrown back every charge and cleared Himself against each accuser. But self-defence was not His aim. Full and unmistakable self-surrender was the business of His blessed life here on earth.

He sits in his chariot, on his way back from the city of empty forms and lifeless ceremonies. He turns to the prophets, and most of all to Isaiah, to find comfort. But sorrow met him here too, and a sorrow he could not get to the bottom of — the sorrows of One from whom Israel, it seemed, had turned away, One led as a sheep to the slaughter, silent as a lamb before its shearers. He is reading this aloud as he catches up with Philip on the road. He reads as if to press on himself something that ought to mean much to him, but does not. The cloud hangs over it hopelessly, as it seems to him, without a guide; and he has none.

The first verse foretold the Lord's rejection during His life (John 12:38). The fourth verse predicted His ways in grace and healing (Matthew 8:17). The fifth verse stated His bearing of our sins, and the blessed result of that for us (1 Peter 2:24). The ninth verse declared His spotless innocence (1 Peter 2:22). That same verse announced His burial in Joseph's tomb (Matthew 27:57-60). The last verse sets out God's appreciation of Him.

The meekness and gentleness of the Lord, His humiliation, His suffering and His death won the heart of the eunuch. They bound him with everlasting bonds to our great Saviour. He did not delay. He had to become His disciple at once and be identified with Him in His death.

The eunuch finds that he too can have his place in the congregation of the Lord. He finds One who can do for him what Jerusalem and the law could not do.

The first clause of verse 33 seems to express how His trial made a mockery of all righteousness. The second expresses the unspeakable wickedness of that generation. The third expresses the violent end of His life on earth, which He bowed to — and that end proves their wickedness.

He was doubtless reading from the Septuagint version in Greek, which renders it, "In his humiliation justice was denied him." And so it was. The trial of our Lord ended in His condemnation and crucifixion, and it was the most shocking miscarriage of justice the world has ever seen. A legal expert has gone through the evidence of the Gospels. He states that every step taken by His accusers and judges, Jews and Gentiles alike, was irregular and unjust.

In condemning Him, men violated every principle of right judgment. But He was content to keep silent before His judges and to move His case to the highest Court in the universe. He knew that His vindication in the presence of Jehovah was sure.

To understand "posterity" here (even in a spiritual sense) seems to go against normal usage, and against this context too. The meaning is His contemporaries instead. How blind they were to His glory! And how blind to the wonderful work His humiliation was about to achieve by His atoning death on the cross! In their murderous hatred they were only hurrying on the very thing that would take away, in the grace of God, the transgression of His people.

And the prophetic declaration of the result is, "He was cut off out of the land of the living," or as the Ethiopian read it, "His life is taken from the earth." So the prophet asks, "Who shall declare His generation?" and to this question men would all reply that, His life being taken, no generation was possible. When we reach verse 10 of our chapter we shall find the answer Jehovah gives to this question, and it is a very different one, since He was cut off and stricken not for Himself but for the transgression of those whom Jehovah calls "My people."

Some old interpreters used this to prove the eternal generation of the Word. They were not justified in it, any more than others who took it of His miraculous Incarnation. But no distortion seems worse than the conclusion that words like these promise Christ's life will last for ever. The whole passage refers only to His humiliation.

In the burnt offering it is not a question of sin-bearing, or of enduring the wrath of God. It is wholly one of voluntary devotedness, shown in the death of the cross… "For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again" (John 10:17). Here we have the burnt offering side of the death of Christ. On the other hand, the prophet sees Him as the sin offering and says, "his life is taken away from the earth" (Acts 8:33, which is the Septuagint version of Isaiah 53:8).

The wording differs from the Old Testament we have because of the Septuagint, the Greek version in common use then… The sense stays much the same. But we should not conclude that Philip kept to this scripture alone. He "began" from it, and that word rather implies — and warrants — that he did not end there, but explained other scriptures too.

Philip put an important question to the eunuch: "Do you understand what you are reading?" The eunuch's answer was just as solemn: "How can I, unless someone guides me?" He was admitting that he could not understand without a teacher. It was almost a confession of a great fact. Whatever the empty boasting of human learning, the mind of man on its own cannot grasp the truth of God at all.

A stranger made bold to speak to that eunuch. It would have been natural for him to brush the man off. Why should this plain man dare to intrude on such a high official? He had no attendants, nothing to mark his rank. … But when the Spirit prepares hearts, they are ready to welcome help. The look of the person, or the strangeness of the meeting, raises no objection in the mind of a real inquirer.

When Philip was sent to the eunuch, the question was mainly about the person. "About whom," asked the eunuch (not "about what"), "does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" And Philip "began at that same scripture and preached to him Jesus."

It is true, as we have often noticed in this prophet, that "my servant" sometimes applies to Israel. But the context always gives clear marks that make the decision neither difficult nor doubtful. Chapter 53 makes it plain and certain. There the Individual in question stands out clearly from the people who did not value Him. He bore their griefs and carried their sorrows. He was wounded for their transgressions, and His wounds brought them healing when He was crushed for their iniquities. He suffered from them and for them, and afterwards brings them remarkable blessing. To make this suffering One the same as those people is the grossest confusion.

It was not by chance but from God that the passage of Isaiah in front of him set out the holy suffering Messiah. Other parts of this same prophecy, before and after, testify to His exaltation. But here it is sufferings only. That was the main difficulty to a Jew, who thought only of His glorious kingdom. So the name "Jesus" fits Philip's use of the prophecy. It is all the more striking because the Spirit had said that Philip proclaimed "the Christ," the Messiah, to the Samaritans. … The Samaritans needed to hear that the Christ had come. The Ethiopian needed to know that the despised and suffering Jesus was beyond doubt the Messiah. … "Jesus" was the right word for this. It says what He became in manhood, so that rebellious creatures could despise Him. It also tells out His own glory — He who stooped so low for us. He was Jehovah the Saviour.

To the eunuch. He explained Isaiah 53. Philip began at that scripture; it goes on even to the glory, for you get "he shall divide the spoil with the strong."

The meekness and gentleness of the Lord, His humiliation and suffering and death — these won the heart of the eunuch. They bound him with everlasting bonds to our great Saviour. He did not delay; he had to become His disciple at once and be identified with Him in His death. So he said, "See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?"

He had come all the way from Ethiopia, a poor hungry man. He went to Jerusalem to find something, for that was where people learned to know the true God. Yet he was going back with an empty heart. Would the Lord let that be? Would He let a man who is seeking Him in that way go back empty? He takes Philip from the middle of the revival at Samaria and sends him into the desert. There He brings Philip and the eunuch together. The eunuch is holding the Bible, open at the very place where He wants Philip to preach from. Out of Isaiah 53, Philip preaches Jesus to him.

"He opened his mouth." This may seem a small matter, yet I think it has a practical lesson for us... Eloquence is certainly not needed, and neither are finely-polished sentences. But two other passages of Scripture show that the servant has a duty to speak clearly and simply. The truth he teaches may be precious. It still builds no one up if his hearers cannot hear or understand what he says.

He "preached to him Jesus" — not doctrines or theories, but a living, loving, personal Saviour. Philip has no difficulty about his text. He has learned that Christ is the spirit of Scripture. So from the passage the eunuch was reading he preaches Jesus, the theme of the good news of God.

So the name "Jesus" fits exactly where Philip applies the prophecy (v. 35). It is all the more striking because the Spirit who inspired the record had said in verse 5 that Philip proclaimed "the Christ," the Messiah, to the Samaritans... The Samaritans needed to hear that the Christ had come. The Ethiopian needed to know that the despised and suffering Jesus was beyond doubt the Messiah... Now "Jesus" was the right word for this. On one side, the name says what He became as a man — someone rebellious creatures could treat with contempt. On the other, it tells out the glory that belongs to the One who stooped so low for us.

We are not to conclude that Philip limited himself to this scripture. The word "began" points the other way: he did not end there, but explained other scriptures too.

Philip began at that scripture, and it goes on even to the glory, for you get "he shall divide the spoil with the strong."

The Shepherd's eye was on him, and the Spirit directed Philip to speak to him. Then it became clear that he was one of the sheep for whom the Good Shepherd had given His life. In earlier days the law never let a eunuch enter the congregation of the Lord (Deut. 23:1). Now he could enter the assembly of God and of Christ — and he did.