An Ethiopian Politician
Falasha Women at the kotel, The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem
An Ethiopian Minister Meets The Messiah ACTS 8:26-40
We don't know his name, but we know he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Queen of Ethiopia, whose name was Candace. He had been on pilgrimage
to Jerusalem to attend one of the three major Jewish festivals and was reading ISAIAH Chapter 53, where God gives Isaiah a prophetic picture of his promised Messiah as a Suffering Servant, who will bear the sins of God's people on himself in order to rectify the disastrous results of human rebellion and will rise again to see the results of his own obedience in the salvation of many from God's judgement because of his substitutionary sacrifice.
"The Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world" the prophet John had called Jesus centuries after Isaiah's prophecy (JOHN 1:29 and 1:36)
Who is this Person being led like a lamb to the slaughter? the Chancellor is wondering, when Philip comes alongside and asks him if he understands what he is reading!
"How can I unless someone explains the passage to me?" he replies. This is the opening for Philip to explain the amazing way in which God has fulfilled a prophecy written hundreds of years before Jesus. This Suffering Servant, he explains, is none other than Jesus Christ who was crucified just outside Jerusalem and rose again two days later to prove his claim to be the Saviour of the world - God's promised Messiah. The Holy Spirit overwhelms the Ethiopian with the realisation that he has found the Messiah. No need to go on searching in vain by observing religious rituals. All he needs to do is to follow Jesus through the waters of baptism and be filled with the Spirit. And so he asks Philip to baptise him when they come to a little oasis where there is a pool. As he rises out of the water in his newfound life, the Ethiopian discovers that Jesus really is alive and can be experienced by all who call on his name.
Questions
Q1 What part has Scripture played in your coming to know God ?
Q2
How has God spoken to you through his Word?
How did you know it was God?