Isaiah 66:1

1. Heaven is my throne… earth is my footstool This is a restatement of doctrines made familiar at the dedication of the first temple, (see 1 Chronicles 6:0,) and often elsewhere repeated, as well as everywhere implied in Holy Scripture. See Stephen’s speech, Acts vii, especially. God’s empire is the universe; the indefinite expanse above is his throne, or the scene in which his sovereignty is in exercise; and the earth is his footstool, (Acts 7:49,) or the scene extended so as to take in the panorama of the scheme of redemption. Being thus everywhere present, how is he to be located in a man-made temple? How weak such a mistake regarding the divine Being! The occasion of the words in this verse appears to have been the prophet’s far-seeing view of the Jews’ worldly pride in the newly repaired and gorgeously ornamented temple under Herod the Great, at Christ’s advent. The temple of Christ’s body was to be the one only temple of sole and solid interest to the world, an effective and enduring shrine before which a world of lost men should bow in worship and supplication for mercy. This is such a place which God seeks for his rest.