Atos 8

Atos 8

Johnson - And, by the way, he ran up to the chariot. Bishop John Taylor Smith used to say, “If he had not run, he would have been out of Isaiah 53 into Isaiah 54.” But it was providence and God led him to the Ethiopian eunuch, just at the right time with what that man needed." Aitken - That is not what some of us do. When God gives us a call we begin to creep thither. How many creeping, limping Christians there are! They have got something to do for God’s glory, and they crawl instead of running. “I have a natural indisposition to occupy a post of publicity or to excite anything like general observation.” My friend, what has thy natural character to do with it? Is it by your natural, or by your supernatural character, that you are going to glorify God?… Whenever God intimates His will, run, and you will find the cross will grow very light to willing feet. It is heavy to the man who crawls, but light to the man who runs. Ran up (4370)(prostrecho from pros = to, toward + trecho = run) means literally to run to or towards and is used in this literal sense in all 3 NT passages (Mk 9:15, Mk 10:17, Acts 8:30). In the Septuagint prostrecho describes Abraham when he "ran from the tent door to meet them (ONE THE PRE-INCARNATE CHRIST - cf Ge 18:13) and bowed himself to the earth." (Ge 18:2), of Essau running to greet Jacob (Ge 33:4), of young men running to tell Moses two men were prophesying (Nu 11:27). Prostrecho - 4x in the Septuagint - Gen. 18:2; Gen. 33:4; Num. 11:27; Prov. 18:10 Proverbs 18:10+ The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous runs (Lxx -prostrecho) into it and is safe. And heard him reading Isaiah the prophet - It was common in this time to read the Scriptures out loud. Why? Presumably because the ancient manuscripts had no punctuation and the words run together which led to the custom of reading slowly and out loud. As an aside, presumably his driver (and possibly others in the caravan heard the words of Isaiah). Kent