Acts 8:29

And the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some one shall guide me? And he besought Philip to come up and sit with him.

And the Spirit said ... How did the Spirit speak to Philip? It might have been through the angel who had previously appeared to him, or it could have been that one of God's prophets gave him the message. However it was, there is no evidence that this was merely an impression, a feeling, or any other kind of merely subjective thing. Intelligible words were spoken, a definite message communicated to Philip, and received and acted upon by him without delay. Before Acts was completed, Luke would relate circumstances which shed a great deal of light upon this question. See under Acts 20:23; 21:10. As it was there, so it must have been here.

Heard him reading ... The eunuch was reading aloud from the roll of the prophecy.

Every man has a certain responsibility for his own salvation; but the man who fully exercises that responsibility does not in so doing receive that salvation by his own efforts alone. The providence of God, the ministry of others, and above and beyond all, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ are all in it. Nevertheless, if a man should refuse or neglect to meet his own responsibilities in the matter, it is not likely that he shall be saved. Notice the part played by this Ethiopian officer in the circumstances leading to his salvation:

He was a devout and faithful worshiper of God, living up to all the light he had.

He made a journey of fifteen hundred miles to worship in the city where God had commanded men to worship.

He either took with him on the journey, or procured at Jerusalem, a copy of the prophecy of Isaiah.

He was reading aloud from the word of God at the time of his encounter with Philip.

He confessed to a stranger that he could not understand what he was reading and that he needed guidance in his study.

He invited a preacher of the gospel to sit with him in his chariot.

He asked a question concerning a passage of God's word that he could not understand. (See under Acts 8:39 for more on this.)

There are countless men today who have never done any of the things mentioned above; and, when it is considered that this Ethiopian did everything mentioned here, there can be no wonder that God acted providentially to bring him to a knowledge of his full duty and to open for him the door of eternal life. The bare facts of this episode shout the message to every lost soul on earth that one should be mightily exercised in pursuing a saving knowledge of the truth.