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Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

“26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.) 27 So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’ 30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ 31 He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32 Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,    

and like a lamb silent before its shearer,        

so he does not open his mouth.

33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.    

Who can describe his generation?        

For his life is taken away from the earth.’

34 The eunuch asked Philip, ‘About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’ 35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ 38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 

40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea” Acts 8:26-40.

This story is concerned with the conversion of a Gentile, and it shows us the gradual progress of the church towards the Gentiles. Phillip meets another traveler who hails from the Sudan. He was a eunuch normally, a person who has been castrated.  Eunuchs were forbidden entry into the temple by the Jewish law (see Deut. 23:1). A eunuch could also be used, however, to refer simply to a court official. We simply don’t know. But what we do know is that Philip receives a Divine command. Philip recognized what the eunuch was reading, and proceeded to ask the eunuch whether he understood what he was reading Isaiah. The passage which the eunuch was reading provided a golden opportunity for Philip. The climax of the conversation with Philip takes place when Philip declares the good news of Jesus. Clearly Philip was there to show the Eunuch that Jesus was the person who fulfilled the prophecy.

Philip obviously said much more to the eunuch than is suggested by verse 35, because when the travelers reached a stream, the eunuch’s reaction was to ask for baptism. The eunuch must have given Philip some evidence of his faith in Jesus, and so there was no reason why he should not be baptized. Notice that most Bibles leave out verse 17 because it seems to have been added later by a redactor. But in a footnote of my Bible is includes verse 37 which says: “And Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’ And he replied, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’” So Philip sees no reason why this man cannot be baptized!

Then the story abruptly ends with Philip being “snatched up” to the town of Azotus, the next town on the road from where he baptized the eunuch.

Dear friends, notice how the Spirit of God responds to our acts of faith. All of this is grace, so pray for yourself to be filled with the grace of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, so that youn also may live by faith, the same faith that the eunuch possessed from the Spirit of God! Pray to the Spirit for storing faith this day. Just pray for faith this day!

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.