Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.” And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. - Acts 8:26-38
One of the many remarkable things about this story is that a very unlikely candidate for conversion to Christ is found and converted through the supernatural leading of the Lord himself, and not through any human planning. This man was from Ethiopia in Africa and had come all the way up to Jerusalem (a journey of well over 800 miles!) to worship God (v. 27). Just think about that for a moment, out of all the tens of thousands of Jews and Gentiles and Samaritans that need Christ, God cared enough about this one man to send an angel to Philip, to tell him, "Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."
Notice that God does not explain the agenda t oPhilip ahead of time. God does not give Philip any rational explanation for why he should leave Samaria, where by the way he was experiencing a miraculous outpouring of God’s Spirit in the conversion of many Samaritans!
How many of us have thought to ourselves at one time or another, “if only God would just tell me directly what He wants me to do, if I could just get some clear sign or direct communication from God about His will, then I would feel better.”? But what if God’s direct communication to us about His specific will made no rational sense at all? How would we respond if God asked us to go somewhere or do something that just didn’t make sense to us at all?
Philip has fled from Jerusalem because of the persecution there. He ends up preaching the gospel in Samaria (the last place a faithful Jew would think to go) and he experiences God using him in powerful ways to spread the message of Jesus Christ. He must’ve thought to himself, “Aha, now I understand why I had to flee Jerusalem.” Then suddenly an angel shows up and tells him to head south to the middle of a desert road, but doesn’t tell him the reason.
Philip goes, like Abraham before him, not knowing all that God has in mind to do. But when he gets to the road, the Spirit tells him the next step to take. God rarely tells us about step two until we have taken step one. This supernatural guidance comes one step at a time. In verse 29 the Spirit says, "Go up and join this chariot." That's all he says. Not what for. Nor who is in the chariot. Just go to the chariot. Philip obeys each step that God shows him, and the result is a changed life!
Will you just take the step(s) that God is showing you? Will you simply step out in faith without knowing every detail, but trust God enough to know that even if you can’t see how it will all work out, God can and God does!
Jeff Frazier
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