The Ancient Kingdom of Kush, in what is modern day Sudan. In the great city of Meroë on the eastern banks of the Nile, a man is readying himself for a long journey by chariot. He works as treasurer to the Queen of Meroë, called the Kandakah, or by the Greeks, the Candace, Amantitere. Despite the position that this man held and the riches that surrounded him, he had learned that power and privilege do not add meaning to life and are capable of providing only temporary satisfaction.
So the Kandakah’s treasurer had turned his mind to the things of God, specifically the God who had revealed himself personally to the Hebrews as Yahweh. Yahweh was both Kingly Creator and Sustainer, and relational Saviour and friend to Abraham and his offspring.
But this Chancellor of the Exchequer was not a Hebrew, nor did he come from Abraham.
He was what the Greeks called an “Aithiop”, from which we get Ethiopian, a term applied to those people living in the nations south of Egypt, from the Greek words for burnt and face. And in a world dominated by Greek language and culture, he had to go with it, imprecise and unflattering as it might seem. In short, he was a black man.
But he must have had some understanding that the worship of Yahweh transcends culture, ethnicity, and any previous religious background. This God had taken wandering pagan nomads, after all, and revealed himself to them and brought them to a land where they could settle as home. He had set them free from slavery and led them through the Wilderness for 40 years. The man who led them, Moses, even married a woman of Cush. Some of the prophets had addressed Cush, mostly in judgement, and this was deserved. God is holy, righteous, and pure and the people of Cush, like those of every nation, fell far short of his standards. Nonetheless, worship could be offered and sacrifices made in the temple, in hope of forgiveness.
So the treasurer set out for Jerusalem, the holy city of the Jews, to worship God in his holy temple.
But there can only have been disappointment awaiting him.
Why would I say that? What is disappointing about worshipping God? What can be disappointing about entering into relationship with him? Really, nothing. But when you have geographically located God in a place, and you get to that place and find only barriers, preventing you from access to God and his people that is disappointing. It’s all fine and good when you can sing “We have come into this place and gathered in his name to worship him” but what about when you can’t say you have come into “this place,” because you can’t get into “this place”, not because it is full but because the rules prevent you from entering “this place.”
Am I saying that after all his long journey, the Ethiopian Tresurer was prevented from entering the temple and from joining its worshipful assembly? Indeed, I am.
Did he know this before his journey? Did he find out enroute? Did he learn when he got there? We are not told. Whether he was already aware or found out upon arrival that he would be prevented from entering, the sad effect was the same.
Imagine with me the Ethiopian Treasurer standing from a distance and looking at the temple, and sighing.
He looks at the towering structure at the centre of the temple complex. And reflects on what he has heard is inside. A thick curtain and behind that curtain, the holiest place, the holy of holies. In ancient times, this would have housed the Ark of the Covenant, in which the tablets of the Ten Commandments were kept. The Ark had long since gone missing but even in this rebuilt temple, the presence of God was said to be so strong, powerful, and glorious that the high priest was said to utter a special prayer of thanksgiving upon exiting it, grateful that he came out alive.
The Ethiopian was not alone in being prevented from entrance into this innermost room of the temple. Only the High Priest could enter Holy of Holies, and experience the weight of Gods glorious presence therein. He could only do so on the day of atonement, offering incense and sprinkling blood to petition God for the forgiveness of sins of the nation. This Ethiopian man was not the High Priest. He was the Treasurer of the Kandakah of Meroë. He was prevented from entering the Holiest Place.
What of the Holy Place?
Outside the Holy of Holies were other chambers and courts. The Holy Place was separated from the Holy of Holies by a thick curtain, but if access to the one was forbidden, it would have to suffice, yes?
No. The Holy Place was only to be entered by priests, of the tribe of Levite, and in the case of this room, of the Kohathite family. There they would tend to the lamp stand, the bread of the Presence, and the altar of incense. The Ethiopian May have had position and prestige where he came from, but he was not a Levitical Kohathite Priest. He was prevented from entering the Holy Place.
Move out of the Holy Place and you come to another court. Immediately in front of the porch entering the building that houses the holy and holiest places, stands the great altar, on which burnt offerings of sacrifice were made. Would our Ethiopian Treasurer be able perhaps to approach this place, and there make sacrifice or watch others make sacrifice? Unfortunately not, for this was the Court of the Priests, and as the name implies, still only priests, though of different families could enter and serve here. The Ethiopian Treasurer was prevented from entering the Court of Priests.
Perhaps he might continue to look out at the temple complex and imagine its layers of rooms and courts in some hope that there might be a place of welcoming, somewhere that will not prevent him from entering. The next layer was the Court of Israel, and for the first time we come to space where people other than priests could gather, but the name itself would signal to anyone not of Israel, this place is not for you. Only Israelite Jewish men were welcome here. The Ethiopian Treasurer was prevented from entering the Court of Israel.
Moving out, still further away from the Holy Places, down 15 steps the Temple visitor would find himself in another larger court, where for the first time he might find a mix of men and women. There were galleries here for the use of women, thus some called this place the Court of Women. The single rows of columns lining the court were thirteen trumpet shaped boxes into which people would place money gifts, and at the corners were storage rooms where treasures of the temple were kept. For a Treasurer, like our friend from Ethiopia, this place might have some interest. But sadly, he would have to go without seeing it. He was not a Jew, and only Jewish men and women could enter here.
The outer walls and gates of the temple complex would now be visible to the person travelling from the innermost parts of the temple, but there is still one court to pass through before one is completely outside. The Court of the Gentiles. This place had come to be used as something of a marketplace. People selling animals for sacrifice, money exchange booths scamming people with their rates and fees. Sometime previous a man had flipped over the tables, released the animals, flailing away with a whip rebuked everyone for turning his Father’s house into a den of thieves. He wouldn’t live much longer. While a far cry from the holy places, and still quite removed from the worshipful assemblies of eager Jewish men and women, this Court of the Gentiles was still part of the temple. Its name would have seemed promising enough for the treasurer of the Kandaka, perhaps here any man or woman of any nation under heaven could enter in the fear and reverence of the Lord to worship him.
But the Ethiopian Treasurer was not any man. Nor was he any woman, although he lacked certain biological features that one would expect of a man. You see, he is not normally known to us as the Ethiopian treasurer. But the Ethiopian eunuch.
As a leading servant of the great woman of Meroë , this man was expected to fulfil his duties without the danger or distraction of a sexual assault or consensual liaison with the Kandaka. He had therefore is some manner been emasculated, perhaps even while quite young, set aside for service in the matriarchal courts of Meroë.
The law was clear. Deuteronomy 23:1 says “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.” What is there to do for such a man? Walls can not prevent worship, but not much else can be be done if entrance to the place of worship is barred, but to worship alone outside the walls, find a scroll of Scripture to read on the journey, hop in the chariot, nod to the driver, and go home. The Ethiopian Eunuch was prevented from entering the Temple.
While trundling away through the desert, the Ethiopian read through the scroll. So much to learn, but there was no one to teach him and thus he had no reliable way of understanding. Who would talk to him, an unclean, physically mutilated Gentile foreigner? It was frustrating.
The chariot begins to slow down. It was time for a break. While tending to the horses and checking the wheels, the driver noticed some poor fool running through the desert. Who comes out into a place like this without adequate transportation? The Treasurer continued to read. He was struggling. Perhaps reading aloud would help him.
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
Running man arrives at the chariot. Says his name is Philip. He hears the Treasurer reading. The Treasurer, perhaps with a bit of annoyance, asks How can I unless someone guides me? And then he thinks, perhaps this man can guide me.
“Come up into the chariot. Let’s discuss this.” Philip joins the Treasurer, and the chariot sets off with its new passenger.
“Who is the prophet talking about? About himself or someone else?”
And there on that chariot ride from Jerusalem to Gaza, the Ethiopian Eunuch heard about the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The eternal Son of God made flesh, dwelling among us, living as us to perfectly represent us a perfect, clean, pure, once for all sacrifice. The cleanliness laws that limited who could enter the Temple, have been fulfilled by one who cleanses all who believe in him. The walls that kept the Gentiles, and the women, and the men and the priests separate in the temple have spiritually been down so we can all worship together as each of us priests to God under on High Priest, Jesus Christ. The altar the Ethiopian Eunuch couldn’t have seen in the temple serves no spiritual purpose now, nor do the sacrifices offered upon it because Jesus has made once for all sacrifice on the cross. The curtain that separated the priests from the High Priest in the Holiest Place on the Day of Atonement was torn from the top down and we are all welcomed by Jesus because of Jesus to enter boldly, worshipfully, and personally into the presence of God. You can, in Jesus name, ask God to forgive you of your sins, to apply the liberating, joyful blessings and benefits purchased by Christ on the cross to your life, make you as though you had never sinned, to welcome you into his family, to help you become more like Jesus in your thoughts, word, actions, and attitudes. You can have help for life and hope for eternity, freedom from slavery to sin, fear of death, and the terror of hellish justice for eternity. You can know the abiding presence of God with you, the power of God in you, the purity of God covering you, the perfection of God awaiting you.
Perhaps Philip mentioned Psalm 68:31, which says “Nobles shall come from Egypt, Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God.”
I dare say he may well have unrolled the scroll just a bit more and made it from Isaiah 53 to Isaiah 56, verses 3-8
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely separate me from his people”;
and let not the eunuch say,
“Behold, I am a dry tree.”
For thus says the Lord:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
I will give in my house and within my walls
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.
“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
and holds fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.”
The Lord God,
who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,
“I will gather yet others to him
besides those already gathered.”
All because of Christ! In the words of the great hymn by Charles Wesley
The veil is rent in Christ alone;
The living way to Heaven is seen;
The middle wall is broken down,
And all mankind may enter in.
The types and figures are fulfilled;
Exacted is the legal pain;
The precious promises are sealed;
The spotless Lamb of God is slain.
The spotless Lamb did not stay slain but rose from the dead and sent his people out into the world to make disciples and to baptise them in the Triune name, marking them before heaven and earth as people of the risen King.
At this point the Ethiopian, filled with faith that Jesus is the only begotten eternal Son of the Father, in whom alone there is forgiveness full and free, looks ahead and sees water.
“Look - here is water! What prevents me from being baptised?”
He wasn’t the high priest, so he was prevented from entering the holy of holies.
He was not a Kohathite Priest so he was prevented from entering the Holy Place
He was not any kind of priest, so he was prevented from entering the court of the priests.
He was Not a Jew, so he was prevented from entering the court of Israel and the court of Women
He was a eunuch, so he could not even join other God fearing African men like him in the assembly that entered the court of the Gentiles.
But there on the desert road, the man came to see that Jesus is a new and better High Priest, who makes all who believe in him a kingdom of priests with equal access to God, that he is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that nothing but his own sinful rebellion is separating him from right relationship with God.
I believe with all my heart in Jesus, the Son of God. Stop the Chariot.
And there in that desert oasis, Philip and the Ethiopian went down into the water. And the Ethiopian man said through this symbol,
I believe in the history of Jesus: he lived, died, and is resurrected!
I believe I have unity with Jesus: The old me is crucified with Christ, the old me is dead and buried in its sin, now I am raised to walk in newness of life in fellowship with his people
I am appealing to God for purity in Jesus. These waters don’t wash away my sin, but even as I go in and come out, I praying that God will continue to wash me, to cleanse me, to make me New in my Saviour.
I believe I will spend eternity with Jesus: one day I will die and go into the ground. But the grave won’t hold me down, because Jesus will raise me up!
Nothing prevented him. He heard. He believed. He obeyed. He was welcomed into the family. He want on his way rejoicing. What prevents you?
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