Now the passage of the Scripture that [the Ethiopian] was reading was this: “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.” (Acts 8:32-33)
The Ethiopian had read about a man killed like a sheep (Isaiah 53:7-8). The words were plain enough, but left much to be understood. Who died, and for what purpose? The search for answers usually starts with the context. Context refers to words and facts that surround a particular statement, helping us to understand it properly. In this case, the immediate context—the words just before and after the statement—give important clues. What sort of person died? The context says, “He was despised and rejected by men” yet “He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth” (Isaiah 53:3, 9). Who is He? The context replies, this “servant” is “the arm of the LORD” (Isaiah 52:13; 53:1). Isaiah tells about the Lord’s arm before Isaiah 53 (Isaiah 33:2; 40:10; 48:14; 51:5, 9; 52:10) and after Isaiah 53 (Isaiah 59:16; 62:8; 63:5, 12). In these references, the “arm of the Lord” seems to refer to God Himself as He acts with great power. Can a suffering human fit such a description? Isaiah himself wrote of a human, a son born to rule, named “Mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6). To such clues Philip could add the more complete context of the Gospel proving that Isaiah pointed to Jesus, the Son of God.