Philip was directed by the angel of the Lord to go on a desert path even though the angel did not give him a specific reason. Philip’s obedience led to an Ethiopian Eunuch encountering Jesus. When God leads us in a certain direction, it won’t always be understood with the natural mind, but He has a purpose for it.
Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert. So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.” Acts 8:26-29
The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip and told him to go south on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. The angel did not tell him why he should go, but Philip obeyed the voice of the angel. Interestingly, the Bible stresses that it was a desert. It sounds like this was a path that you would not want to be on unless there was a purpose to it. The distance from Jerusalem to Gaza is about 47 miles. Philip would have had to walk some of this distance until he saw the man from Ethiopia. He could have potentially been on the road for a few hours before he came across the chariot belonging to the Ethiopian official.
It took faith on the part of Philip to be on this arid road with no particular reason to be there. I wonder how many of us would go somewhere without naturally having a reason to go. This requires faith and not leaning on our own understanding especially if the path is an arid land with no seeming beauty or purpose.
Sometimes, in our lives we come across some deserts that don’t make sense, and we wonder how did we end up here!? The Lord has a purpose for those desert experiences, and if we are patient with the process, we will encounter His good purpose. Furthermore, in an arid area or an arid season you don’t have a lot of distractions, so when the Lord wants us to reach someone, that we would normally not approach, He has our attention.
I am reminded of the late Derek Prince who lived during the WWII era and the turmoil in Israel in 1940s and 1950s. He shared that due to lack of communication during that era, he and his wife would just pray that God would allow them to meet and/or see the individuals they needed to talk to or minister to. The Lord God blessed them with divine appointments and opportunities in the normal course of their daily lives.
The above passage is during the season that the persecution was growing against the church. Christians were being scattered and there was probably fear of who they should trust and who they shouldn’t trust. The good news is that this was also the time that the presence of the Holy Spirit and His leading was very tangible and evident in the believers’ lives as we see it to be the case in the above passage.
Many Christians are concerned about the coming persecution against the church in America. Christianity is not popular, and many opposing voices accuse Christians of being haters and judgmental. It is also getting harder and harder to trust the news sources to know what is really happening all around us. However, when we consider the Christians in the early church, we can be encouraged to see that they had developed a sensitive ear to hear the voice of the Lord amid all the persecution and chaos. As a result. the Lord blessed them with some amazing encounters including the above story where Philip met the Ethiopian official.