Acts 8: 26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go south to the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official in charge of the entire treasury of Candace, a queen of the Ethiopians. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his return was sitting in his chariot, reading Isaiah the prophet.
29 The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to that chariot and stay by it.” 30 So Philip ran up and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth. 33 In His humiliation He was deprived of justice. Who can recount His descendants? For His life was removed from the earth.”
34“Tell me,” said the eunuch, “who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with this very Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they traveled along the road and came to some water, the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is there to prevent me from being baptized?” 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both 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 carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip appeared at Azotus and traveled through that region, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
Philip was sitting up in Samaria in that city where God had just brought revival. Philip and Peter and John had enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship, and God had done incredible miracles. Surely, Philip should have been allowed to rest a little and bask in the glow of the success and take it easy for awhile. But just as Philip was relaxing, something happened. AN ANGEL OF THE LORD CAME TO PHILIP AND SAID, “GET UP AND GO SOUTH TO THE DESERT ROAD THAT GOES DOWN FROM JERUSALEM TO GAZA!”
There are several things to notice about this story: 1) God sent an angel to make sure Philip got the message. 2) God was sending Philip to a dangerous lonely road in the desert; Philip may have wondered if he was about to be set upon by bandits because there weren’t lots of other people down that way. 3) Philip immediately started out; he didn’t argue or give any excuses. 4) God was sending Philip to a highly influential man from Ethiopia who already followed the Jewish forms of worship. This man was in charge of the entire treasury for Candace, an Ethiopian queen. And this man was so hungry for God that he was reading Isaiah’s prophecies and was hoping for someone who could explain them to him. 5. When Philip had told the Ethiopian about Jesus, they just “happened” to come to some water. Finding any kind of water in that area was a miracle all in itself, because the land south of Jerusalem was very dry. And it was the Ethiopian who suggested that Philip baptize him, yet another miracle!
After the Ethiopian had been baptized, God picked Philip up and sent him north to Azotus and eventually on to Caesaria on the Mediterranean coast. Why didn’t God give Philip more time with the Ethiopian? Timing was everything. Philip had fulfilled God’s purpose for that encounter. Had Philip remained with the Ethiopian, he might have said something to confuse him; as it was, the Ethiopian returned to his country with the message of the Gospel. There are some traditions in Ethiopia that suggest that this was one of the first ways Christianity reached Ethiopia.
What about God picking Philip up and moving him someplace else? Does that kind of thing really happen? In the spring of 1980, my mother was becoming quite sick with cancer and a fungal infection of the brain. Not knowing about any of this, I was working in Charleston, WV, 800 miles away from northwestern Illinois, where my mother lived. One afternoon I was driving from one of the hospitals where I was working back to my apartment…. except all of a sudden I found myself on the way to South Charleston, where there was an excellent Christian bookstore. I had no memory of traveling the streets before I turned onto the bridge to cross the Kanawha River to South Charleston. Finding myself at the book store, I prayed and then bought books and sent them to my mother. Those may have been the last books she read before she entered the hospital where she eventually died. To this day, I have no other explanation for the events of that afternoon, apart from the idea that God wanted my mother to receive those books at that time.
Sometimes we are certain we know how our lives ought to work, and we become angry with God when things don’t turn out the way we think they should. But we need to remember that God’s ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8). Philip was probably just enjoying the success he had had in one city of Samaria; meanwhile, God had a plan of salvation for the entire country of Ethiopia. God is always doing more than we realize and always has several more reasons for events than we can imagine. Is God sending you to a desert road? Just wait! You might represent the means of salvation for thousands or even millions of people.
PRAYER: Father God, thank you that your ways are far, far higher than ours! Thank you that you never waste time or waste people. Thank you that you have many purposes for each one of us. Lord, let your kingdom fully come, let your will be fully done in our lives! In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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