Unless Someone Explains It To Me…

Unless Someone Explains It To Me

5.8.24 [Acts 8:26-38] River of Life (May Video Devotional)

Do you want to make something? Fix something? Learn something? What do you do? Look it up on Youtube, right?

It used to be that you would open up the instructions or find the manual or open up a book like this to figure something out. But now, people look it up on YouTube.

Why is that? It’s not that the how-to-books, the manuals, or the instructions don’t exist anymore. They do. They’re folded neatly, printed in size 7 font, and available in dozens of languages. The manuals can be downloaded online. The how-to-books are on the shelves and gathering dust. Yet people still turn to YouTube.

Why? The information isn’t always better. It isn’t always accurate. Sometimes, they make mistakes in the videos. At times, the advice and information are even flat-out wrong.

But a lot of people watch. Why? Because we want a person to help us. We want someone to show us the ropes. We want someone to explain things to us. To help us understand.

The desire for help, for explanation, for understanding isn’t limited to the kitchen, the garage, or the classroom.

Have you ever read something in the Bible and wondered what it was saying, what it meant, or how it applied to your life? Have you ever run into some debate or dilemma in life and wondered how a wise person, a faithful believer, a child of God might navigate those challenges?

In Acts 9, there was an Ethiopian man who had just made a long trip to Jerusalem. On his way home he was reading through a portion of Isaiah. Here’s what it said:

(Is. 53:7-8) He was led like a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation, he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.

As he read these words from the prophet Isaiah, he was trying to make sense of them. Was Isaiah talking about himself? Many prophets were treated quite poorly by the people of God. Isaiah’s death is not mentioned in the Bible anywhere, but there was a story about how the Judean King Manasseh ordered that Isaiah be executed by being sawn in half. The Bible doesn’t tell us that, although it does say in Hebrews 11:37 that some believers died in this gruesome way. It isn’t as far-fetched as we might like to think. King Manasseh was recorded as ritualistically sacrificing his own children to a false god. So it’s not unthinkable that he would kill the Lord’s prophet Isaiah. Who could find any of Isaiah’s descendants?

It makes sense why this Ethiopian man thought Isaiah might be talking about himself. But God wanted him to know whom that text was really speaking about. So he sent Philip to meet this man as he was reading these words on his way back home.

When Philip heard him reading, he asked a simple question. Do you understand what you are reading? The Ethiopian man replied: How can I, unless someone explains them to me?

So Philip did. He began with that passage and told this man the good news. These words were not about Isaiah. But Jesus of Nazareth. Philip explained why Jesus was led a sheep to the slaughter. He connected the dots for the man who was trying to make sense of what he was reading. God used Philip to help this man understand how and why God accomplished our salvation.

I’d be willing to guess that God has done the same for you, too. I have yet to meet a single Christian who just picked up a Bible and read it and got it and didn’t ask for someone to help them understand. Maybe it was a pastor. Maybe it was a grade school teacher. Maybe it was a friend who was walking beside you and helping you see who your Savior is and why you need Jesus. What a gift from God!

I’d also be willing to guess that God has done the same through you. Someone has come up to you and asked some questions about the Bible, about your faith, and about your Savior. And, by God’s grace, you were able to tell them the good news about Jesus.

YouTube didn’t invent this instructional technique. God made us this way. He made us curious. He made us inquisitive. He made us to be people who want to know more about our world. About our lives. God made us to be people who want more and better.

That’s what happened for this Ethiopian man. As Philip opened his eyes to see wonderful things in the Word of God, he also learned about God’s gift of Baptism. When their journey passed by some water, he asked a simple question: What can stand in the way of my being baptized? The answer to that question was nothing and no one. God wants all sinners to be made his own children through the gift of Baptism and continue to grow and mature in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Let that be our goal these next months. May God open our hearts and minds to learn about his love and will through his Word. May God open our eyes and ears so that we might recognize those who need someone to explain the good news.