A New Devotion - Instead Of

Here's a new devotion that I wrote. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

Acts 8:26-39

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it." So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside 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 silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth." The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?" He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

Instead Of

I’ve always found this to be interesting story. I mean, we’ve got a guy guided by an angel who meets an Ethiopian eunuch who’s reading Isaiah. And after some conversation and witnessing, the eunuch ends up believing and getting baptized. Now that’s the story in a nutshell, and I think this can serve as a powerful witness to God’s authority and the direction he offers to those who follow.

But along with that, I’m also fascinated by the actions of Philip. You see, as I read the story, he was so much more than some kind of pawn for God. In fact, throughout the passage, he could have simply avoided the whole situation. For example, he could have said “no” to the Spirit right at the beginning or when he saw that the guy on the road was an Ethiopian (strike one) eunuch (strike two), Philip could have kept right on going. And he didn’t need to ask if the eunuch understood what he was reading, and when he got his answer, he sure didn’t need to explain it. And finally, Philip had no obligation to perform a make-shift baptism. You see, at three different points, he could have avoided this whole thing. But of course, that’s not what he did. I mean, instead of moving on, Philip went and then he stopped. And instead of shrugging his shoulders, Philip listened and shared. And instead of coming up with an excuse, Philip baptized an Ethiopian eunuch into the Body of Christ.

And I’ll tell you, I think we can claim this example ourselves. You see, I believe there are all kinds of people that God has prepared to hear and believe the Good News but who are also folks who are easy either to condemn or ignore. But instead of looking the other way so that we can head down our road to something we might consider more important, we can make an intentional decision to stop and then to listen to their concerns and to share the good news of Jesus Christ and then to do whatever is necessary to include them in the fellowship of God. You see, in the face of a world full of folks who are not like us, instead of acting like they don’t matter, we can do something else, something better, something more inline with who we were created to be.