The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”
Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.
The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?”So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.
As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Azotus. He preached the Good News there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.
That part of the Scripture just stood out because we don’t really know what happened. And that’s kind of what I like about the Bible. There’s some things in the Bible that we don’t know. And it reminds me that God’s ways are not our ways His ways are higher than our ways. And guess what, He doesn’t always have to tell us what happened.
But I do wonder what it was like being Philip in that moment. You know here you are baptizing someone and all of a sudden you’re in another town. I mean, did he just walk to the other town and not remember it because he was so excited about the baptism? Or was he literally transported from that spot to the other town? You know, kind of like in Star Trek with the transporters. I don’t know. But it was obviously important enough to be put in the Bible.
I think it is a good way of showing us how sometimes when we finish our purpose, it’s done. And then it’s time to move on. We don’t always get an explanation. Jesus just moves us from point A to point B.
It doesn’t seem like Philip skipped a beat from that transportation. He continued to preach the good news wherever he went. So he continued to do the ministry that God had given him. His time with the eunuch was over. Done. Finite.
I think that sometimes we like to hold on to things we are doing, maybe because they feel comfortable, they feel good, or we’re not ready to move on for whatever reason. But when we’ve done what God has called us to do at a specific time in a specific place, then when He’s ready to move us on, He just moves us. And that’s okay because if He is moving us, then He has a calling for us in the other place where He moves us.
That kind of thing happened to me last year when I’d lived with my best friend’s mom. I’d rented a room for my best friend’s mom for 15 years. And then my dad died, and then suddenly… It was time to move. God basically said, “this time is over.” I dug in my heels. I didn’t want to leave, but another part of me knew that it was time to leave. I was very wishy washy. I felt horrible that I was leaving the woman when she was in a time of need. And, you know, is this really what the Lord wanted me to do? Or was I taking the easy way out? You know, blah, blah, all those things that go through our minds.
I remember talking to a Pastor and he said, you had an anointing living there for that season. God anointed the time that you spent there, but now that it’s time for you to leave, the anointing’s no longer there. And I was like, he’s right. That anointing had been lifted.
Well, I finished packing, and I kid you not, an hour after I finished packing, My best friend called her mom and said, “Mom, I’m going to have to come and live with you.” So I needed to be out of there in order for her to move in.
So when our time or our season is done for a purpose that God has for us, He will move us on to the next. Mine happened so fast. It’s all a blur and it’s not exactly like what happened to Philip because it really does sound like he was literally transported to a different city miraculously. But I was all of a sudden packed and out of that house and into my mom’s. When God’s purpose for our lives is over then it’s finished. God will move us on. He always knows the next step of His plan for our lives.
So that was what was very interesting to me about today’s reading.
Until next time with Jesus’ help let’s be less messy and choose what’s better.