PREACHING THE OT
27
This column is about the Old Testament , but on this occasion , I need to begin in the New . In Acts 8 we read of an apparently chance encounter between Philip , and a man described as ‘ an Ethiopian eunuch , a court official of Candace , queen of the Ethiopians , in charge of her entire treasury ’ [ Acts 8:27 ].
The man was clearly a successful civil servant , commanding no doubt a good deal of power and perhaps a sizable salary . But he was a eunuch . Occasional scholarly attempts to view this description as metaphorical have largely been overruled . This is probably a man who was castrated in childhood , in order to be set aside for high service without the distractions of love and family . Did he choose this status ? It seems unlikely . This is a man who has suffered violence at the hands of others ; violence which has left him with enduring physical consequences , and no hope of fathering children .
In the story , the eunuch is reading Isaiah 53 and , in his now-famous words , asks Philip ‘ About whom does the prophet say this , about himself or about someone else ?’ [ Acts 8:34 ].
We often rush on to the wonderful conversion story , and perhaps to his other rightly famous question ‘ What prevents me from being baptised ?’ [ Acts 8:37 ]. But before we do that , let ’ s look at the Old Testament passage which is in view . This , incidentally , is an extremely good practice whenever we encounter quotations or allusions to the Old Testament in the New .
I wonder why the man was reading Isaiah 53 . Had he just got to that point in his study of the entire book ? Or was there something about that song which made him linger there , which kindled his imagination ? Because here , in the very words of scripture , he would have found something which perhaps reflected his own experience .
‘ He was despised and rejected … He was oppressed and afflicted … By oppression and judgment he was taken away .
And who can speak of his descendants ? For he was cut off from the land of the living .’
Who was the prophet speaking of ? A good question , indeed .
This man knew his scriptures . He would , no doubt , have been familiar with the law in Deuteronomy 23 : ‘ No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD .’ Maybe he ’ d bumped up against that law in his most recent visit to Jerusalem . He was , after all , on his way back from worshipping in Jerusalem . Did he find the entrance to the Temple courts blocked by one of the Levitical guards ? It seems likely . As a eunuch , he was forever doomed to be a second-class citizen in God ’ s kingdom .
So who was the prophet Isaiah speaking of ? As he reads these words , the man encounters someone whose experience bore resonance with his own ; someone who had done nothing to deserve it but had suffered at the hands of others . I wonder if the man ’ s heart leapt a little to find himself mirrored there , in those ancient sacred words .
Like any good evangelist , Philip is ready and able to give account of the story of Jesus to this man ; to introduce him to the One who is the ultimate fulfilment of that prophecy . And as Philip speaks , the eunuch hears of a man who has walked the same road of suffering , a man who understands the human experience of pain and injustice , a man who was the ultimate innocent victim .
But I wonder if Philip then turned the scroll a few more columns and drew the man ’ s attention to the prophet ’ s words in ( what we now call ) chapter 56 . If he did , this is what they would have read together .
‘ Do not let the eunuch say , “ Behold , I am a dry tree .” 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 .’
Hundreds of years previously , God had laid traces in the text for this man , clues to a future that he had never dreamed of . Here was a promise of a coming fellow sufferer , but one whose suffering would not simply be that of solidarity . Instead , a fellow sufferer would come whose suffering would achieve something – would , in fact , change the economy of the entire world . As a result of his coming , those who had previously been excluded would now find themselves on the inside .
I think the eunuch grasped this . ‘ What prevents me from being baptised ?’
Nothing , indeed .
Helen Paynter
Rev Dr Helen Paynter is a Baptist minister in Bristol . She is tutor in Biblical Studies at Bristol Baptist College , and also the founding director of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence there . Helen ’ s publications include the books : God of Violence Yesterday , God of Love Today ? Wrestling honestly with the Old Testament ( BRF 2019 ) and The Bible Doesn ’ t Tell Me So : Why you don ’ t have to submit to domestic abuse and coercive control ( BRF 2020 ).