“But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, ‘Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a desert road.) So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship…. Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him….. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:26-27, 35, 39).

Over the years, I have met many believers in Jesus (Jewish and Gentile) who sincerely believe that becoming more Jewish is the true path to a deeper experience of Jesus.

What began for them as a journey to a more accurate understanding of Jesus becomes the destination itself.

Sadly, the blessed joy of knowing Jesus is replaced with an unhealthy and divisive focus on calendars and customs. But ask this Ethiopian eunuch about his search for God and he would tell us that he did not meet the God of Israel at the temple in Jerusalem. Rather, his joy-filled encounter with the living God came when he discovered Jesus through a faithful exposition of the Old Testament. What is lacking in the church today, in many cases, is not a more Jewish expression of the faith, but rather, a more biblically rooted conviction that the Old Testament is no less Christian than the New Testament!

“Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. They said to one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?'” (Luke 24:31-32).