29Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” 30Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: “He was led as a sheep to slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He does not open His mouth. 33In humiliation His judgment was taken away; who will relate His generation? For His life is removed from the earth.” 34The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” 35Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him.
The longer title for the book of Acts (NIV, ESV, NKJV) is “Acts of the Apostles” (NASB, NLT, KJV, and many Greek manuscripts) and seems a bit misapplied. While the full contingent of twelve apostles is evident early on, the book focuses primarily on Peter and John in the first portion of the book, and then exclusively on Paul in the latter portion (except for chapter 15). The titles attached to the various books of the Bible are not inspired but added later by copyists. We agree with those who suggest that a better title might be “the Acts of the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit directs the action, as we see in our passage today. He is the leading Actor in the story; everyone else is in a supporting role.
Back to the story—Philip puts out the discussion starter, the “ice-breaker” question: “Do you understand what you are reading?” This suggests an excellent method for evangelism. Invite people to read the Bible with you, and simply ask with each verse, “Do you understand this?” or related, “What do you think that means?” Philip began with where the Ethiopian eunuch was: in the book of Isaiah. While today that is not a likely place for unbelievers to be reading, this man was not unfamiliar with the OT Scripture, for he was coming back from worshiping the God of the Jews.
The passage he was stuck on was Isaiah 53:7–8 and the identity of whom Isaiah was speaking. Philip responds with what has become for today’s Bible students a hermeneutical principle for understanding the OT: look for Jesus. In other words, we should read the OT (that was the only Scripture the Jews had) with the goal of looking for what it reveals to us about Jesus. And indeed, Philip interpreted this passage as being about the rejection and death of Jesus.
The casual reader will assert that Jesus does not enter the story until four hundred years after the OT was completed. But when read through the “Jesus” lens, the OT opens up to a whole new level of meaning that all points to Him.
Lord, I want to see Jesus in Your Word (John 12:21).
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