Acts 8:26

But an angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza: the same is desert. And he arose and went: and behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship.

THE CONVERSION OF THE ETHIOPIAN

An angel of the Lord ... One of the seven services performed by angels of heaven for the benefit of them that shall inherit eternal life is that of aiding providentially in bringing sinners under the influence of the gospel. For discussion of all these, see my Commentary on Hebrews, Hebrews 1:14.

Go toward the south, etc. ... The angel's message to Philip set the evangelist on the road several hours in anticipation of the eunuch's departure from Jerusalem, being so timed that contact with him would be made. Of course, the eunuch knew nothing of this providence; and, similarly, it may be that many a man's contact with the gospel today is the result of providences unknown to himself.

Which is desert ... As used here, this has no reference to a waterless desert, but to a region without population. For more on this, see my Commentary on Matthew, Matthew 14:13. The area traversed by the road Philip and the eunuch traveled "has never been anything but a fertile plain called the plain of Philistia,"[39] having many pools and a number of streams of water.

A eunuch of great authority ... Eunuchs were forbidden the enjoyment of full religious privileges by the Jews; and one evident reason for Luke's inclusion of this episode is to show that the opposite was true in Christianity. (See Deuteronomy 23:1.)

Candace ... This was the dynastic name of the queens of Ethiopia, just as Pharaoh was the dynastic name, or title, of the kings of Egypt. The kingdom was that of Meroe. The fact of the eunuch's traveling some fifteen hundred miles to worship indicates that he was a devout worshiper of God. As he came along in his chariot, reading from a roll of the prophecy of Isaiah, someone has said that he was like a man at sunrise, tilting his manuscript in such a manner as to catch the first rays of the rising sun of Christianity.