The Road South: One Reader in the Desert (Acts 8)

Acts 8 begins with a persecution and ends with a baptism in desert water. Philip is in Samaria in the middle of a citywide revival, crowds and healings and "much joy in that city"Acts 8:8 English - ESV, when an angel hands him the strangest reassignment in the book: rise and go south, to the road that runs down from Jerusalem to Gaza Acts 8:26 English - ESV. Luke adds, almost dryly: this is a desert place.

On that empty road there is one traveler: an Ethiopian eunuch, treasurer to the queen, riding home from Jerusalem and reading Isaiah out loud Acts 8:27-28 English - ESV. Everything about him is in-between. He is a God-fearer drawn to Israel's God, yet as a eunuch he was barred from the full assembly by the very law he loved Deuteronomy 23:1 English - ESV. He had traveled all that way to worship at arm's length.

The Spirit says, "Go over and join this chariot." Philip runs, hears Isaiah 53, "like a sheep he was led to the slaughter", and the man's question is humbling: "About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this?" Beginning with that Scripture, Philip told him the good news about Jesus. The suffering servant was cut off, humiliated, denied descendants. The eunuch is reading his own biography, and Philip shows him the One who lived it and rose past it.

Then, water in a desert and a question that answers itself: "See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?" After Isaiah 53, nothing prevents. Isaiah had even promised this scene: to the eunuch who holds fast, "a name better than sons and daughters" (Isaiah 56:5 English - ESV). He goes on his way rejoicing, and the old traditions remember him as the gospel's first witness to Africa.

The geography preaches. The gospel leaves a boom in Samaria for one reader in the desert, because the Spirit counts differently than we do. In Acts, borders are not obstacles. They are the itinerary. Acts 8:35 English - ESV Acts 8:39 English - ESV

Acts 8 Berean Standard Bible - Bob Souer

Wilderness of Sin. A scene from the world of the traveler Philip met on the desert road.