A Year in Luke/ActsSample

The Spirit sends Philip running to catch up with his chariot. He finds the eunuch reading from Isaiah 53. A few chapters later, in Isaiah 56, it says:

“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)

As someone who had made the journey all the way to Jerusalem to worship, the eunuch must surely have known this passage. As a eunuch himself, he must have held onto this promise so tightly. This was hope! NT Wright posits: “perhaps, we may speculate, the man had been reading that passage, and had then been looking back at Isaiah 53 to see on what basis God could, after all, make possible his acceptance.” (p49, The Challenge of Acts)

Imagine his joy at that moment when Philip arrives and explains the good news about Jesus, as Israel’s Messiah, bringing the kingdom of God to earth and making a new family where any who will repent and turn to him can be accepted.