Isaiah 66:3

Isaiah’s last chapter opens with “Thus saith the LORD”. The name is Yᵉhôvâh, the eternal, covenant-keeping God of Israel, and what follows comes with his full authority. The verse just before has promised “new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17), and chapters 65 and 66 together set the LORD’s judgment on the rebellious and hypocritical beside the restoration he holds for the humble and obedient. Now the Maker of heaven and earth speaks about where he lives.

The word for throne, kiççêʼ, is the ordinary word for a seat, stool or throne, and here it is a king’s seat. The footstool, hădôm, is a stool for the feet, and the Hebrew joins it to regel, “foot”, so that the earth is the footstool of his feet. The picture is of a King whose rule fills the whole sky and whose feet rest on the whole earth. Scripture speaks of God in human terms like these so that we can grasp his power and authority, and their scale shows how far he stands above every earthly measure. The earth, so vast to us, is the place he rests his feet.

Verse 2 gives the answer the questions were preparing. “For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD.” All those things are heaven and earth and everything in them, the things of verse 1. His own hand made them, and they exist because he made them, so any temple is built from his own materials. Isaiah has already called him “the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 40:28), and the Maker of all has the right to say what matters to him.

Then the verse turns: “but to this man will I look.” The verb nâbaṭ means to look, see or gaze, and it can also mean to have regard for someone, which is its sense here. Set against all the works of his hand, it is the LORD turning his regard to one kind of person. He could prize power, wealth or achievement, and he chooses to prize a heart that knows its need of him. Scripture says this again and again: “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6).

Verse 3 sets four acts of worship beside four acts the law of Moses abhorred. “He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man.” An ox was a sacrifice the law prescribed (Leviticus 1), and here it counts as murder, the taking of a human life made in God’s image. “He that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck.” A lamb was a pure offering, while dogs were counted unclean and despised (Deuteronomy 23:18), so breaking a dog’s neck would be a defiling act. “He that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood.” The oblation, minchâh, was a bloodless grain offering given in thanks and devotion, and swine were forbidden as food and as sacrifice (Leviticus 11:7). “He that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol.” Incense pictured prayer rising to God, as David prays, “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense” (Psalm 141:2), and blessing an idol breaks the first commandment.

Each holy act stands beside its opposite, and the LORD counts the one as the other. Their worship, offered by hearts turned from him, had become a form of idolatry, honouring self or false gods in the place of the LORD.

Verse 4 is the LORD’s answer to the choice of verse 3. They have chosen their own ways, and now he says, “I also will choose their delusions.” The word taʻălûwl has to do with caprice and vexation, and Strong’s notes that it can even stand for a tyrant. Here it names the foolish, self-chosen ways that will become their trouble. The path they wanted turns into their undoing, and it leads them further into error. “And will bring their fears upon them”: the very things they dreaded, the harm they hoped to escape, will come on them.

Then the LORD gives his reason. “Because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear.” He had taken the first step, calling them through his prophets, his law and his dealings with them, and they refused. The verb dâbar means to speak, and he had spoken to them plainly enough. Wisdom says the same in Proverbs, “Because I have called, and ye refused” (Proverbs 1:24–31), and goes on to the calamity that comes on those who turned her away.

“But they did evil before mine eyes”: they sinned openly, in the sight of the God who sees all. “And chose that in which I delighted not.” The verb for “delighted” is châphêts, the same verb as their soul delighting in abominations in verse 3. They delighted in what he hates and chose what gives him no pleasure. The judgment fits the sin. They chose what displeased God, so he chooses their delusions. They closed their ears to his word, so they will meet the things they feared.

The God who asks “where is the house that ye build unto me?” has always willed to live among his people. He showed his presence in the tabernacle and the temple, and in Jesus he came to live with us in person: “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). His name is Emmanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Jesus spoke of his own body as the temple: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19–21). The temple of stone had been a shadow pointing to him, and since his death and resurrection God’s presence is open through faith in him, wherever a person is.

Now the Spirit of God lives in his people. Paul writes, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16), and he calls each believer’s body the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19). Together the church is a spiritual house built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the chief corner stone (Ephesians 2:19–22). The Father seeks those who worship him “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23–24).

Heaven is still his throne. The risen Jesus said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18), and having offered his one sacrifice he sat down at God’s right hand, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool, as Psalm 110:1 foretold and Hebrews explains (Hebrews 10:12–13).

Christ is also the humble one of verse 2 and the true sacrifice behind verse 3. He emptied himself, took the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:7–8). He lived in perfect submission to his Father’s word: “I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things” (John 8:28). The sacrifices of the law were a shadow of good things to come (Hebrews 10:1), and Christ offered his own sinless life once for all as the perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 9:11–14). Through him God gives what Ezekiel promised, a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26–27), so that people who once chose their own ways come to delight in his. By his Spirit, those in Christ share his humility and reverence, and become the very people on whom God delights to look.

Verse 4 meets its fullest answer in him as well. The word God spoke, which his people refused to hear, became flesh in the Son, “the brightness of his glory” (Hebrews 1:3). “He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:11), and Jesus lamented over Jerusalem, “how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matthew 23:37). Refusing him brings a hardened heart, continued darkness and in the end separation from God, the deepest of all fears. Whoever hears his word and believes on the Father who sent him has everlasting life and has passed from death unto life (John 5:24).

These verses join two truths about God. He is so great that heaven is his throne and the earth his footstool, and every house we could build is small beside him. And this same God looks with favour on the person who is poor, crushed over sin and trembling at his word. All our building and offering add nothing to him, while a humble heart has his attention.

The passage also shows how seriously he takes worship. Sacrifices he himself commanded become, in hearts that love their own ways, as hateful to him as murder and idolatry, and those who refuse his call are given over to what they chose. The warning is plain, and the mercy beside it is just as plain. He calls, he speaks, and he looks for the one who answers. In Christ the God of heaven has come to dwell with such people, and by his Spirit he makes them his temple. Whenever his word lies open before us, Isaiah 66:2 tells us whom he is looking for.