“Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool; where is the house that Ye build unto Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things hath Mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord; but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.” Isaiah 66:1-2
This sets the place, time, and purpose of the discussion in Isaiah 66. This passage was quoted by brother Stephen in the sermon that cost him his life in Acts 7:49-50. To confuse the subject, time of fulfillment, and purpose of this text is not only impossible, but also dishonorable!! “Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for My name’s sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be formed at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.”
If the heart tremble at the Word, the ear will open to its message; “For all those thing hath Mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord; but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.”Isaiah 66:2 Isaiah had decried the jest of the hypocritical Jew that mocked the Word of God and refused His calling to them for obedience. So Isaiah turns his message to those who would. Listen to brother Stephen: “Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; saith the prophet.” Acts 7:48 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.” Acts 7:44 “Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.” Acts 7:53 “This is He, that was in the church in the wilderness with the Angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust Him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt.” Acts 7:38-39. Miss this if you want, this is speaking about the “new creation, the new heaven and new earth, made by Christ, refused by the children of Israel!! The house Solomon built, Stephen declares, “was built by man’s hands,” the temple that Christ built would be built “by the hand of God.” For all those who look for Christ to come back to this earth and “build again the things He once destroyed,” make Christ a sinner!! The Church of Christ in HAND MADE!! Each member of her society is personally added to His body by the Son. It was true, all the “children of the mother were angry with us,” Song of Solomon 1:6, and even Pilate mocked Christ when he said; “ Thine own nation hath delivered Thee unto me.” John 18:35 The Jew who “cast them out of the synagogues” excommunicated us as though we were the worst of blemishes because we “called upon the name of the Lord.” It is no new thing for the church to be punished by the governorsss of false religions who cry out; “let the Lord be glorified,” Jesus prophesied: “They shall put you out of the synagogues, yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor Me.” John 16:2 The prophesy of Psalms 14 is completely missed unless you put it in context!! Read: “the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up My people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord. There (when they call on the Lord) were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous, Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge. Oh! That the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of His people. Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.”
Stephen had them on target as the “fool” and “haters of God’s people.” Worse, they had thought themselves the “builder of the “house of God,” which, in fact God reserved for Himself to build, and having not listened to the prophets had completely missed the message from heaven!!
