Here is the passage we didn’t read this morning in class:

³ “Don’t let foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord say,
    ‘The Lord will never let me be part of his people.’
And don’t let the eunuchs say,
    ‘I’m a dried-up tree with no children and no future.’
⁴ For this is what the Lord says:
I will bless those eunuchs
    who keep my Sabbath days holy
and who choose to do what pleases me
    and commit their lives to me.
⁵ I will give them—within the walls of my house—
    a memorial and a name
    far greater than sons and daughters could give.
For the name I give them is an everlasting one.
    It will never disappear!
Isaiah 56:3-5 NLT

It’s importance is based upon the promise given in the passage concerning eunuchs. Where they were not allowed onto the temple mount (Deuteronomy 23:1*), they were given this promise 700+ years before Philip shared the Gospel with the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:20-46**). The Gospel was indeed good news to the eunuch because he was now accepted by the Messiah and, upon the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, became a temple for God Himself!

The import for his conversion cannot be described. To this day, Ethiopia is the ONLY nation to bear the title of Christian Nation in the world. We cannot know for sure, but his position in the high court gave him the same influence as Joseph in Pharaoh’s court, and thus upon the entire nation.

*No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord. Deuteronomy 23:1

**²⁶ As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ²⁷ So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
²⁹ The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”
³⁰ Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
³¹ The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.
³² 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.
³³ He was humiliated and received no justice.
    Who can speak of his descendants?
    For his life was taken from the earth.”
³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” ³⁵ So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.
³⁶ As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?” ³⁸ He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
³⁹ 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. ⁴⁰ 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.