The evangelist, the charlatan, and the convert (4)

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him… Acts 8:26-40

He dominates these fifteen verses of the Bible (please read right through to verse 40), then he disappears, never to be seen or heard of again. What a mysterious and intriguing figure! The Ethiopian eunuch… the Bible would be a far poorer book without his story.

The evangelist Philip has been told by God to head for a “desert road” on the way to Gaza. He comes across a “chariot” (probably more like a lumbering ox-drawn cart) which is carrying an important-looking figure, and the Holy Spirit tells him to go alongside it. He hears the man in the chariot reading (it was normal at that time to read out loud) and recognises the words: Hey, that’s Isaiah 53!

Possibly with his heart in his mouth he shouts up, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And instead of “Mind your own business – clear off!” the man shouts back, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” And he invites Philip to come up and sit with him.

And so, having got used to preaching Jesus to big crowds in Samaria, Philip now has the task – and the privilege - of telling just one person about him. God does indeed “move in mysterious ways”!

What do we know about this man?

He was almost certainly black. He was almost certainly not a Jew, but he obviously had a keen interest in the Jewish faith, for he had travelled all the way from the northern Nile region to Jerusalem to worship God, and he had got hold of part at least of the Hebrew scriptures. A spiritually-minded man.

He was a eunuch, which meant that, however much he may have wanted it, he could never be a full member of the people of Israel (see Deuteronomy 23:1). He occupied an important position in his home country – he was, so to speak, the chancellor of the exchequer of the Kandake or “the Queen of the Ethiopians”.

But he was also humble and teachable. Philip must have cut a pretty bedraggled figure, tramping his way through this unfriendly terrain, yet the eunuch welcomes him and even asks for his instruction.

Perhaps above all, he was ripe for conversion. No doubt Luke has abridged considerably the way the conversation went, but we get the impression that just as God had prepared Philip for this encounter (verses 26 and 29), so too he had prepared the eunuch. This is a wonderful case of the “providence” of God: on that memorable day, and at that memorable moment (verse 27), Philip and the eunuch were meant for one another. And in very little time he gets baptised (verse 38).

We know nothing of what happened to the eunuch. But it’s reasonable to assume that in the coming days Africa received her first missionary, and the gospel was planted in that continent.

I said at the beginning that after these fifteen verses the eunuch is never seen or heard of again in the Bible. But perhaps that isn’t strictly true…

What about the prophecy of Jesus in Luke 13:29: “People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places in the kingdom of God”. The eunuch, coming from the south, was surely part of the fulfilment of that prophecy.

And what about the vision of John in Revelation 7:9: “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the lamb”. I reckon that if you look very, very closely you will be able to see the eunuch in that crowd…

A final thought… The passage the eunuch was reading that day, which Philip explained as pointing the way to Jesus, was Isaiah 53:7-8: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth… his life was taken from the earth”.

But I wonder if, as he went on his journey, he read on a couple of chapters and came to Isaiah 56:3-5. Just listen to this: “Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.’ And let no eunuch complain, ‘I am only a dry tree.’ For this is what the Lord says: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant – to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters…’”.

I love to think that he did indeed read those words – and that they triggered a gasp in his throat and brought tears to his eyes.

No wonder he “went on his way rejoicing”!

Lord Jesus Christ, thank you that you are for all people, regardless of race or colour. And thank you for the providence of God which orders our days and our ways so that we might be of use to you. Please make me sensitive to your leading day by day. Amen.