Acts viii. 35. Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
IF God have designs of love and mercy towards any person, he will be at no loss for means whereby to accomplish them. We can have no doubt but that the Ethiopian Eunuch was chosen, like the Apostle Paul, even from his mother's womb ; yet had he left Jerusalem, where all the Apostles were assembled, without obtaining any knowledge of Christ Jesus. Moreover, he was now going to his own country, where the light of the Gospel had never shone, and where he seemed to be altogether beyond its reach. But God, by an angel, ordered Philip to go into the desert, through which the Eunuch was travelling; and then, by his Spirit, directed him to join himself to his carriage ; that so he might communicate to him the knowledge he stood in need of, and lead him to the enjoyment of everlasting life.
The Eunuch was reading an interesting portion of Scripture, which he did not understand : and Philip, at his request, went up into the chariot with him, and expounded it to him.
The points to which we would draw your attention
are,
I. The passage expounded —
[This is one of the most important passages in all the prophetic writings. The prophets indeed all speak of Christ in some measure ; but Isaiah more than any other ; insomuch that he has been called, The Evangelical Prophet : but of all his writings, there is not any other part so full, so plain, so rich as this : it might be rather taken for a history of past events, than a prophecy of things to come; so minute and circumstantial is it, in all that relates to the person, character, and office of Jesus Christ.
The precise words which the Eunuch was reading, are a part of a discourse or prophecy beginning at the 13th verse of the 52d chapter of Isaiah, and extending to the close of the 53d chapter. Some difficulty in the explanation of them
344 ACTS, VIII. 35. [l?(>0.
arises from a difference between the Hebrew copies, and the Septuagint translation, from which the words were quoted : though in fact the sense in both is nearly the same ; namely, that the person there spoken of was treated with the utmost injustice ; that no one would offer a single word in his defence ; and that he was cut off as a malefactor. The main difficulty in the Eunuch's mind was, to ascertain " of whom the prophet spake ; whether of himself, or of some other person :" and this is a difficulty which the modern Jews are unable to surmount. The ancient Jews admitted, that the whole discourse related to the Messiah: but since the Messiah has come and fulfilled that prophecy, the Jews interpret it as referring to their nation, who were punished for their offences. But the most superficial reader will see in a moment the absurdity of such an inter- pretation : for we are told again and again, that the person who suffered, suffered for the sins of others, and not for his own ; and that " by his stripes the people of God were healed." So plain is the prophet's whole discourse, that nothing but the most inveterate prejudice can prevent any man from seeing its accomplishment in Jesus Christ : and we trust, that, at a future period, it will be the principal source of conviction to the whole Jewish nation, and make them, as it did the Eunuch in his own country, instrumental to the salvation of the heathen world.]
Such is the passage which Philip undertook to explain. Let us next consider,
II. The exposition given —
[" He began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus." Of course he would explain the terms, and shew the perfect accomplishment of them in Jesus, together with the impossibility of referring them to any other person. This was the method which Peter adopted on the day of Pentecost, when he shewed that David's prophecy relative to the resur- rection of Christ could not be interpreted of David himself, but was actually fulfilled in Christ3. Now this passage would afford him a fair opportunity of declaring every thing relating to Christ, as far as the time would admit, and the occasion required. The person of Christ, as God's Son and " Ser- vantb;" his unparalleled sufferings*; the vicarious nature of those sufferings^; (seeing that he had no sin of his own, but suffered under the load of our sinsc;) his resurrection to a new and heavenly lifef; his prevailing intercession for us at the right hand of Godg; and all the victories of his grace in the