The Bible is sprinkled with accounts of God commanding people to things that don’t seem to make much sense. Noah, who has never seen rain, is to build a huge boat inland. Abraham is told to sacrifice his son. Moses is instructed to lead Israel into the sea. Peter is invited to step out of a boat and on to water.
The second half of Acts 8 has a similarly strange commandment. Following the death of Stephen, the apostles double down on the mission. Philip, who is not an apostle, gets busy preaching the gospel. One day, an angel of the Lord appears to Philip and instructs him, “Rise and go toward the south to the read that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” Luke, the writer of Acts offers some helpful commentary at the end of Acts 8:26 writing, “This is a desert place.”
It really isn’t strange that God would send a preacher to a different town to share the gospel. But it does seem a bit odd that God would send Philip to a road.
Go back and read God’s commandment carefully, Philip was instructed to go to a road in the middle of a desert.
The amazing part of the story is that Philip obeyed, and it was there that Philip had an opportunity to lead an Ethiopian Eunuch to faith in Christ. Philip obeyed a command from God that must have seemed strange, even to Philip.
Why?
Philip obeyed God’s word because he trusted God. Disobedience often comes from our lack of trust in God and his word. Sure, you could describe its pride, but remember what pride is: pride is an over-inflated view of yourself and your ability and an unwillingness to trust others as a result.
Philip trusted God, and as a result was allowed to participate in God’s plan to redeem an Ethiopian official.
Millions of Ethiopian believers throughout the past two centuries trace their spiritual heritage back to this one event. And this event was possible because Philip trusted God enough to obey his commandments, even when they didn’t seem to make sense.
What keeps you from obeying the Lord? What keeps you from keeping God’s word? More likely than not, some of your disobedience can be tied back to a lack of trust. Maybe you don’t trust that God’s ways are actually better than your ways. Perhaps you don’t believe that God’s plans lead to your joy and flourishing.
Obedience begins with trust. When you are willing to trust the Lord, you become more open to obeying the Lord. When you trust the Lord, you may become willing to obey God in radical ways that make little sense to worldly minds.
When you begin to trust God’s hand and his heart, you might just find yourself following him to the a road in the middle of the desert. You might discover that the middle of nowhere is the center of God’s blessing in your life–because it is the place he sent you and it is the place where he meets with you. You might just discover God’s will for your life in the middle of seemingly mundane obedience. And, if you do, you will learn to trust him even more.
Photo by Ronda Dorsey on Unsplash
