What is the throne of God—is it a literal seat?

God, who bounds everything else, is Himself without bounds. He sets bounds to the sea; Huc usque; "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further"; He sets bounds to the angels; they, like the cherubims, move and stand at His appointment (Ezek. 10:16), but He is infinite without bounds. He who can span the heavens, and weigh the earth in scales, must needs be infinite (Isa. 40:22). "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" (Jer. 23:24). The humble heart is His throne, in regard to His gracious presence (Isa. 57:15); and heaven is His throne, in regard to His glorious presence (Isa. 66:1); and yet neither of these thrones will hold Him, for the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him.

But Solomon asks a pertinent question, "Will God indeed dwell with men on earth? (v.18). To do so would require an astounding act of grace, for the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain God. He is infinite, without limits, and omnipresent, present everywhere at all times. We cannot understand the greatness of His being. He cannot be confined anywhere, yet in a very real sense He dwelt in the temple, in the holiest of all, though in thick darkness. This is a paradox in which we may rejoice.

"But," Solomon adds, "will God indeed dwell on the earth?" David realized that God's dwelling in the darkness of the holy place did not by any means infer that God was confined there. In fact, "heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You" (v.27). God is infinite (unlimited) and omnipresent (present everywhere), yet in pure grace He specially signified the temple as the place of His dwelling in order to concentrate Israel's thoughts on Him as the Center of all Israel's interests.

"Thus says Jehovah, the heavens [are] my throne, and the earth [is] my footstool: what [is] the house that ye will build to me? and where [is] the place of my rest? Even all those [things] has my hand made, and all those [things] have been, says Jehovah" (vv. 1, 2). It is not that God did not accept the house which king David desired, and his son Solomon was given, to erect for His glory. It is not that He will not have a sanctuary in the midst of Israel in the glorious land; for He has revealed it minutely, with the feasts, sacrifices, priests, and appurtenances, by Ezekiel (Ezek. 40 - 48).

But it is another thing when His people, despising the only Saviour and Lord, their own Messiah, rest in the sanctuary, as of old in the ark to their own shame and discomfiture before their enemies. So it was when the Lord left the temple — no longer God's house but theirs, and left to them desolate, Himself its true glory being despised and rejected. So Stephen charged home on them these very words (Acts 7:48-50). It was not he nor Luke, but Isaiah who declared that the Most High dwells not in temples made with hands: and this in full view of the "exceeding magnifical" temple which Solomon built. Heaven is His throne, earth is His footstool. What can man do worthily for Him to rest in? He needs nothing of human resources. His own hand has made all these things, in comparison with which man's greatest exertions are puny indeed.

Once more among the Jews at the end of the age shall be the state of things which draws out this rebuke of their own prophet. Trusting in the house that they are at length allowed to build in Jerusalem, they must prove afresh that an unbelieving idolatrous heart desecrates a temple, and that not thus can sin be settled between God and the sinner. Earthly splendour in such circumstances is but gilding over iniquity. It is real hypocrisy. They may seek in unbelief to restore "all these things that have been"; but God has a controversy with the people about idolatry and the rejected Messiah not yet judged; and His elect own their sins and look for the new estate He will create in honour of Messiah. The heart must be purified by faith in order to worship acceptably.

Therefore, Stephen's words now cut right to the heart of the matter. "The Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands" (N.A.S.B.). Also He quotes their own scriptures to clearly indicate this: "Heaven is My throne, and earth is the footstool of My feet: what kind of house will you build for Me? says the Lord: or what place is there for My repose? Was it not My hand which made all these things?" (N.A.S.B.). Is God to be contained in a trifling part of that which His own hands have created? The One who had indisputable rights in regard to the temple had already been rejected and crucified by Israel. How can they speak so piously of the house while rejecting its true owner?

Supreme above all, it is thus alone He can be near to all; not dwelling in temples made with hands, which isolate and shut Him up; nor served by human hands, as if He were in need. Sufficient to Himself, He is the Source and Centre of all; life and breath and all things but His gift. None then can make Him his debtor, nor give Him, save of what is but His own.

Here then, thought the Jew, must Jehovah restrict Himself to that 'magnifical' palace of His holiness. For unbelieving man must have an idol somewhere. 'But the Highest dwells not in [places]1 made with hands; even as the prophet says, The heaven [is] My throne, and the earth a footstool of My feet: what sort of house will ye build Me, says [the] Lord, or what [is] My place of rest? Did not My hand make all these things?' (vers. 48-50). Superstitious exaltation of the temple detracts from His glory Who gives it all its distinctive grandeur. Jehovah did deign to hallow and glorify it, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of God. But Solomon himself at that august consecration had owned that heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, much less the house he had just built! And so afterward spoke the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 66:1), long before Babylon was allowed to burn and destroy the object of Israel's pride. It was no afterthought to console the Jew in his subjection to Gentile masters: so had Israel's king spoken to God; and so had God spoken to Israel long before the Chaldeans had become an adversary commissioned to chastise their idolatry. {1 The best authorities ℵABCDE, some cursives, and all the ancient versions save the Armenian, et al., have no such addition as 'temples' in the Received Text and most junior MSS., et al.}

In examining the blessing pronounced by the king (which, like almost all that is termed blessing, consisted of thanksgiving), and his prayer, we shall again find the same principles that we pointed out at first — the fulfilment of the promises made to David as present blessing (vers. 20-24); but the enjoyment of this blessing granted under condition of obedience (vers. 23-25). The prayer sets the people under the terms of a righteous government, abounding indeed in kindness and forgiveness, yet one which will not hold the guilty to be innocent; and it presents God as the people's resource, when the consequences of their sin fall upon them according to the principles laid down by Moses in Deuteronomy and elsewhere. Moreover, while confessing that the heaven of heavens could not contain Jehovah, the king entreats Him to grant every prayer that should be addressed to Him in this house — a petition which was granted (chap. 9:3), so that the house was established as the throne of the God of heaven upon earth — the place in which He revealed Himself, and in which He had put His name.

(1) "Dominion and fear are with Him." Who can declare the infinite greatness of God, who fills heaven and earth, and transcends all His limitless creation? "The heavens, even the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee." Nor is this infinitude of being powerless; He reigns over all things, the government is His — "He everywhere hath sway, And all things serve His might."

The glory of the Son of Man (John 13:31) is clearly in relation to the Cross and His meeting God in relation to sin; here it is the glory of the Son in relation to the Father. The distinction is most marked. If we think of God in Essential Being we must take account of His attributes, such as, for example, His Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence. In the first of these, He upholds all things; sits upon the circle of the earth, holds the oceans in the hollow of His hand, weighs the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. In the second, He knows all things." Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? says the Lord." "All things are naked and opened to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do." Then, the third thing is His Omnipresence; He fills all things." The heaven is My Throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house that you build to Me? says the Lord."