The Ethiopian Eunuch


Here is the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.  Acts 8:26-40 “Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, ‘Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is desert. So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go near and overtake this chariot.’ So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ And he said, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. The place in the Scripture which he read was this: ‘He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.’ So the eunuch answered Philip and said, ‘I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?’ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?’ Then Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’ And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.”

It appears that God wanted the gospel spread to Ethiopia.  He caused Philip to preach Jesus to the eunuch who was a man of great authority in the Ethiopia government.  The message of the gospel as preached by Philip was obviously powerful and caused the eunuch to believe.  The message of the gospel included baptism because the eunuch wanted to be baptized.  We also have his example of confession “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”  Once he was baptized, the eunuch went on his way rejoicing, for he had received salvation through Jesus.

But what about the passage of scripture that the eunuch was reading?  This is found in Isaiah 53:1-12 “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked — but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

The book of Isaiah was written over 700 years before Jesus had His ministry on earth.  Yet it contains a wonderful prophesy of Jesus and what He did for us.  Let us look at a few of the points that the prophesy makes about Jesus.  In His outward appearance, there was not special handsomeness that people would be attracted to Him.  He was despised and rejected by men.  He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows; He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities; the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He did this by taking our sins upon Himself on the cross.  When He was on trial before the Sanhedrin council and the Roman authorities, Jesus did not open His mouth to defend Himself.  For our transgressions He was crucified beside two other wicked men on Mount Calvary. After His death, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took the body of Jesus, prepared it for burial, and placed it in a rich man’s tomb.  Jesus had done no violence; there was no deceit found in His mouth.  Yet, God caused Him to suffer on the cross as a sin offering for all of us.  Many are justified by the death of Jesus.  He bore our iniquities.  Therefore God has highly exalted Jesus.  Jesus gave Himself to die for us.  He was condemned like a wicked man.  He bore the sins of us all upon the cross and can now make intercession for us as sinners.

Isaiah 53 is a powerful prophesy about Jesus.  Just as it caused the Ethiopian eunuch to believe, confess His faith, and be baptized, it should strengthen your faith and cause you to submit yourself to Him. Give glory to God for His wonderful plan of salvation that He sent His Son to die for you and me.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.