What the Ethiopian Eunuch Means for You

What the Ethiopian Eunuch Means for You: "

(Author: Jonathan Parnell)

Luke is picking up the pace when we get to Acts 8. Jesus' mandate that his disciples spread the word about him (Acts 1:8) is being fulfilled. The gospel has gone from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and we are on the verge of seeing it break through to the Gentiles. But right in the middle of this advance we find a short narrative about Phillip being sent to the desert to meet an Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40).

Acts is full of allusions to the book of Isaiah, and this scene with the eunuch is one of them. Think back to Isaiah 56. In the place where the most explicit gospel content in the Old Testament is found, Isaiah prophesies that the salvation to come will include the conversion of the nations (Isaiah 56:1, 6-8). And in the thick of that content we read,

For thus says the LORD: "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." (Isaiah 56:4-5)

In these verses Isaiah pictures God-fearing Gentile eunuchs, and he says that the LORD's salvation will come even to them. 'The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, 'I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered'' (Isaiah 56:8). God will gather inhabitants for Zion from among the nations.

So Phillip meets an Ethiopian (Gentile) eunuch who is returning home from worshipping in Jerusalem (a God-fearer) and reading the prophet Isaiah (the same book that declares that God-fearing, Gentile eunuchs will be saved). Then, using Isaiah 53, he tells him the good news about Jesus (Acts 8:35), and this God-fearing Gentile eunuch believes.

What's the point of this little story? You see the connection: Luke is showing us that all the stuff Isaiah prophesied about is now taking place. Jesus has been crucified, buried, and risen. The Spirit has been sent. And the gospel is being proclaimed among the nations.

It's happening. God is doing his gathering work. Luke wants us to get that. Luke wants the story of this emasculated guy from East Africa to send us the message of where we're at in the storyline. The church in Acts is on the brink of seeing God finish history—how much more the church today!

Here's an incentive not to waste your life: we are the people upon whom the end of the ages has come.

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