The question posed in Isa 66:1 is “Where is the house that ye build unto me?”. It is a text that is taken to firmly indicate the absence of the temple,[1] and it is used to prove that the oracle of which it is a part is post-exilic. It has also been used as evidence for the post-exilic nature of Isaiah 56-66 as a whole. However, a contrary proposal is that the text is using the figure of a temple for the faithful; in fact, this is certain.
1) God asserts that heaven is his throne which suggests that the point of the text is to declare that this place is God’s actual temple. The earth is a footstool, a function elsewhere predicated of the ark, which further suggests that it is not the temple with which God is concerned: i.e. the place of the ark, because the earth is his actual footstool.
2) Heaven and earth are “all those things” that God’s hand has made. This echoes Gen 1:31,
“And God saw all things that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Gen 1:31 (KJV revised)
This shows that the point of Isa 61:1 is not about what can be made by men, because everything has been made by God. Hence, Isa 66:2 says that “all those things have been”.
3) The point being made is “to this person will I look, even to the person who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word”. This echoes Isa 57:15,
“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Isa 57:15 (KJV)
The echoes here are several even though the vocabulary is different: i) God is “high” and “inhabits eternity”, likewise, heaven is his throne; ii) he “dwells” in a high and holy place but also with a certain type of person, likewise, God “looks” to a certain type of person; and iii) God looks to the “contrite”, “humble” and “poor” in spirit.
4) The question, “Where is the house that ye build unto me?” is the parallel contrasting clause to “but to this person will I look”: there is heaven and earth which God has made on the one hand, and there is a house/temple or a certain kind of person on the other hand. This parallelism is indicated by the play on words ’ê-zeh and ’el-zeh (“where is this” and “to this”) in the two statements.
5) That this is what God wants is further reinforced by the contrast in Isa 66:3—sacrifices and oblations were being offered, but they were not what God wanted. If all that is being offered are sacrifices of animals (v. 3), this is not enough because what God wants is the spiritual house of a man’s faith.
God’s question, “Where is the house that ye build unto me?” (v. 1) is not about the absence of a literal temple in Jerusalem. The temple had been burned (Isa 64:11) and denuded of its treasures (2 Kgs 18:15-16), and materials to repair and beautify the temple were promised (Isa 60:13). But a lack of repair work on the temple is not the complaint of Isa 66:1, which is instead about “building”. Rather, the “house” is a metaphor for the faithful in the land with whom God sought to rest.
The mention of “rest” secures this line of exposition. This “rest” is that which comes through the teaching of spirit-gifted prophets:
“Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. 10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: 11 For with mocked (g[l) lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. 12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.” Isa 28:9-12 (KJV revised)
This teaching contrasts with the lies which the rulers of Jerusalem were pursuing in their agreement with hell during the Assyrian invasion. Those who had the spirit at this time were giving refreshing and rest through their teaching, if only the rulers of Jerusalem would listen.
During the siege the spirit was bestowed (Isa 28:11) and God taught the people to have faith in a foundation stone of a new house which was Hezekiah, and remain in the city (Isa 28:16). It was in their possession of this faith that God promised the people “rest”. When therefore God asks again, “Where is the place of my rest?” (Isa 61:1),[2] he asks about those faithful with whom he could dwell.
[1] C. Westermann, Isaiah 40-66 (London: SCM Press, 1969), 413.
[2] The concept of “my rest” (ytxwnm) is used in Pss 95:1 to refer to the land that the generation in the wilderness would not enter; it is also used to refer to Zion and the temple (Pss 132:8, 14).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One