Acts 8:29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, Go near, and join yourself to this chariot. Marriages, they say, are made in heaven; i.e., the steps of two, both being God's dear children, are so directed that after each has passed over many windings, the two paths converge, and the two lives meet and melt into one like two rivers, flowing thenceforth one broader, deeper, stronger stream. Meetings that are of shorter duration, and partnerships that are less intimate, come under the same rule. "It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." If God's purposes in creation require the meeting of two circling worlds, He will so arrange that the two shall touch at the very point of space and time which He has designed. The same might and wisdom have been at work to arrange a meeting wherever one earthen vessel charged bears Christ, and another empty receives Christ at a brother's hand. This case is recorded as a specimen of the Lord's way. Such meetings occur now, and ye know not the day nor the hour when the messenger sent by God to meet you may heave in sight — in church, street, lonely path, or home. Those who desire to meet him will not miss him. Though the place was desert and the path dimly traced, and the time not told at all, Philip and the Ethiopian met with all the exactitude of tides and seasons. These meetings, long prepared and wisely arranged, are sometimes lost through obstinate unbelief. What a meeting was that between Paul and Felix! How far up the lines of preparation for it ran; and how skilfully they were held by God until the missionary and the ruler met! Now, Felix, or never. "Go thy way," etc. Fool! You will never get another. He thought he was only politely putting off the Christian: in reality he was rudely rejecting Christ. To lose such a meeting may be to lose your soul. Philip ran to meet the eunuch. Hitherto he had walked, perhaps slowly. So when two objects attract each other by hidden magnets, their mutual motion towards a meeting is scarcely perceptible at first; but when they have approached near the movement quickens, and they traverse the rest of the space at a rush. (W. Arnot, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.WEB: The Spirit said to Philip, "Go near, and join yourself to this chariot." |
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