The Ethiopian Eunuch
TRANSLATION
(26) Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza which is a desert area.” (27) So he got up and went. And on the way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official in charge of the treasury belonging to Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He had come to Jerusalem to worship, (28) and was now returning. While sitting in his chariot, he was reading from Isaiah’s prophecy. (29) The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”
(30) Philip ran over and heard him reading from Isaiah’s prophecy. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” (31) And he answered, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” He then invited Philip to get up and sit beside him. (32) Now this was the passage of Scripture he was reading: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (33) In his humiliation he was deprived of justice, and who can speak of his descendants, for his life was taken from the earth?” (34) Then the eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, of whom was the prophet speaking? Of himself or of someone else?”
(35) Then Philip opened his mouth, and, beginning with this Scripture, told him the Good News about Jesus. (36) And as they were going along the road, they came to a pool of water. And the eunuch said, “Look here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?” (38) And he gave orders for the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. (39) And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch didn’t see him again but went on his way rejoicing. (40) Philip found himself at Azotus, and passing through, he proclaimed the Gospel to all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
OBSERVATIONS
While an Ethiopian eunuch may have seemed an unlikely person to respond to the Gospel, the Spirit of God directed Philip to share the Good News with someone who may well have been the means to evangelize an entire country. Several repeated words help us determine the thrust of this passage. Philip’s name is found nine times (vss. 26, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 38, 39, & 40). “Ethiopian(s)” occurred twice (vs. 27) while “eunuch” appeared five times (vss. 27, 34, 36, 38, & 39). “Get up and go” was complemented by “got up and went” (vss. 26 & 27). “Chariot” is found twice (vss. 28 & 29) as are “reading” (both in vs. 30), and “Scripture” (vss. 32 & 35). In the final paragraph both “water” (four times in vss. 36, 38, & 39) and “baptized” (twice in vss. 37 & 38) were repeated. Verse 37 is not included in many modern translations because it was not found in the earliest manuscripts and is considered a later addition. It reads, “And Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may (be baptized).’ And he replied, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’”
OUTLINE
I. Directed by God, Philip met an Ethiopian eunuch on the road and explained to him how the portion of Isaiah he happened to be reading had been fulfilled in Jesus’ recent death. (26-35)
II. After baptizing the Ethiopian who continued on his way rejoicing, Philip next found himself preaching the Gospel on his way to Caesarea. (36-40)
IDEA STATEMENT
God used a willing messenger (Philip) to preach the Gospel to a most unlikely individual (the eunuch) so that its message would be carried by him to a distant portion of the world (Ethiopia).
APPLICATION
We can only speculate on the multitude of ways God has employed over the centuries to carry the Gospel message to the whole world. The story of Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch has to rank as one of the more unusual. Here we have a Jewish evangelist of the early church directed by the Holy Spirit to join the chariot of an African eunuch (Ethiopian could refer to any area of Africa south of Egypt) who had just departed for his homeland after worshiping in Jerusalem. We cannot help but associate the visit of this high-ranking court official who served as Queen Candice’s treasurer with the visit made by the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon’s court almost a thousand years previously. Somehow this important man had become a Jewish proselyte in far-off Africa and was evidently making a pilgrimage to worship in Jerusalem even though he would not be allowed to enter the temple precincts because the Law forbade eunuchs to enter the sanctuary.
While riding in his chariot, the eunuch just happened to be reading the portion in Isaiah’s prophecy (in Hebrew? in Greek? in Aramaic?) that foretold the sacrificial death of Israel’s Messiah, chapter 53. When Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading, the eunuch invited him to be his teacher. So prepared was the eunuch’s heart to receive the Gospel that when Philip had finished giving him the Good News about Jesus, he asked to be baptized without further delay. We can only speculate on what happened next, but it would be safe to assume that this new believer returned to his homeland prepared to share the Gospel with his entire nation.