It would hardly have occurred to Philip to go preach on an empty road, but the Angel of the Lord directly intervenes in the ministry of preaching and sends him there at the very moment when...
It would hardly have occurred to Philip to go preach on an empty road, but the Angel of the Lord directly intervenes in the ministry of preaching and sends him there at the very moment when the Ethiopian official is about to pass along it. This encounter cannot be called ordinary, and not only because it happened through a direct angelic prompting. The encounter itself became the embodiment of the prophecy of Isaiah, the book the Ethiopian was reading.
That the foreigner was a Jew by faith is not surprising: by that time faith in the God of Israel had already gone beyond the boundaries of the Jewish people, so it is no wonder that the Ethiopian was reading the book of the prophet Isaiah. What is striking is the court official's humility, his readiness to listen to an interpretation from an ordinary-looking person he met on the road.
Immediately after Philip revealed to the Ethiopian eunuch, whose name remains unknown to us, the meaning of the prophecy, he wanted to be baptized. He did not need a long catechumenate, and not only because he himself was already ready for it.
After parting from Philip, the Ethiopian must have continued reading Isaiah, and a few turns of the scroll later he was going to read the prophecy that the Lord would accept even eunuchs, to whom He would give "an everlasting name that shall not be cut off" (Isa 56:5), and foreigners, "for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (Isa 56:7).
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8:26 The way which is desert - There were two ways from Jerusalem to Gaza, one desert, the other through a more populous country.
8:27 An eunuch - Chief officers were anciently called eunuchs, though not always literally such; because such used to be chief ministers in the eastern courts. Candace, queen of the Ethiopians - So all the queens of Ethiopia were called.
8:28 Sitting in his chariot, he read the Prophet Isaiah - God meeteth those that remember him in his ways. It is good to read, hear, seek information even in a journey. Why should we not redeem all our time?
8:30 And Philip running to him, said, Understandest thou what thou readest? - He did not begin about the weather, news, or the like. In speaking for God, we may frequently come to the point at once, without circumlocution.
8:31 He desired Philip to come up and sit with him - Such was his modesty, and thirst after instruction.
8:32 The portion of Scripture - By reading that very chapter, the fifty - third of Isaiah, many Jews, yea, and atheists, have been converted. Some of them history records. God knoweth them all. Isa 53:7
8:33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away - That is, when he was a man, he had no justice shown him. To take away a person's judgment, is a proverbial phrase for oppressing him.And who shall declare, or count his generation - That is, who can number his seed, Isa 53:10; which he hath purchased by laying down his life?
8:36 And as they went on the way they came to a certain water - Thus, even the circumstances of the journey were under thedirection of God. The kingdom of God suits itself to external circumstances, without any violence, as air yields to all bodies, and yet pervades all. What hindereth me to be baptized? - Probably he had been circumcised: otherwise Cornelius would not have been the first fruits of the Gentiles.
8:38 And they both went down - Out of the chariot. It does not follow that he was baptized by immersion. The text neither affirms nor intimates any thing concerning it.
8:39 The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip - Carried him away with a miraculous swiftness, without any action or labour of his own. This had befallen several of the prophets.
8:40 But Philip was found at Azotus - Probably none saw him, from his leaving the eunuch, till he was there.