The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 480

be of God. Ile "will make it." 2. It will be characterized by reverence for him, and one of its main features will be regular and universal worship (ver. 23). It will be durable as the strongest of his handiworks. It " shall remain." IV. THAT GOD WILL. RECEIVE THOSE FURTHEST AWAY TO NEAREST INTERCOURSE WITH HIMSELF, Of the Gentiles themselves God would take "for priests and for Levites" (ver. 21). This was a startling promise, and never was literally fulfilled. But it finds e. glorious fulfilment in the kingdom of Christ. Now we (Gentiles) who were afar off are brought nigh. We worship and serve in the sanctuary; we sit down nt "the table of the Lord; " we have freest and fullest access to God; every barrier in the way of perfect int~rcouree has disappeared; we are admitted to the royal presence, and" stand before the King;" nay, we ourselves are "kings and priests unto God." That which once seemed hopelessly impossible has become a. constant privilege under Jesus Christ.-C. Vers. 1, 2.-The place of God's rest. This passage should be associated with that second temE).e which was raised by the returned captives from Babylon, at the direc- tion of Ezra and Nehemiah, and under the inspirations of the prophets Isaiah, llaggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. A subtle peril lies in building any house for God. That peril lay in the building of the first house. It still lies iu the erection of every new house. It is the danger of thereby limiting and materializing our idea of God. If, in our thought, God actually comes to dwell iu any earthly temple, we limit the infinite ; we lose that wide, sublime, spiritual, unnameable glory that properly belongs to the Deity. We are in danger of making him take a place among the idol-gods who are attached to a certain mountain, or stream, or wind, or country, or sh1ine. To this peril the people were exposed who watched the second temple arise from amidst the ruins of the first. Though cured of their idolatries by their sufferings in Babylon, they yet might fail to retain those nobler thoughts of God which were the treasure of their race. Therefore Isaiah pleads with them as in this text. I. GoD REVEALING HIMSELF. By the aid of outward, sensible figures God discloses his spiritual nature, his moral attribut.es, his character. "The heaven is my throne, tho earth is my footstool." We are bidden to look for help towards realizing God from the great, the solemnizing things of nature. All creation with which we have to do was made to serve the moral and spiritual culture of God's reasoning and free creatures. Everywhere around us things are full of God. They are pictures, illustrations, words, suggestions, of the Divine. The great, the majestic, the oppressive, is around us. The noonday sky, with its serene height of blue; the midnight sky, with its myriad worlds crowding the infinite depths; mountains rising to pierce the clouds, or hanging in frowning precipice; the great floods of water rolling in their ceaseless tides ;-all compel us to say, "How marvellous are thy works I in wisdom hast thou me.de them all: the earth is full of thy greatness." One instance, illustrating the. figure "Heaven is my throne," may be given. A star in the far depths attracted the attention of an observer. It seemed to be e. single star, but to his educated eye it resolved itself into two stars. 'fhose two proved to be each a star, centre of o. planetary system like our own. Those two Rtars, which seemed but one, were really distant from each other five hundred times the distance separating onr earth and the sun. vVho of us can conceive such sublime spaces as are thus unfolded? What must he be who walketh among the shining lights, whose throne rises higher than these stars, whose canopy is gemmed with myriad s,rns I And if the telescope can put such meaning into the figure of the heavens, the micro- scope puts e~ual meaning into the figure of the earth. God needs this whole earth for a "footstool.' This great earth, with its giant trees, and inaccessible mountains, and unfathomable waters, and millionfold forms of life, cannot hold God; it is but a rest- ing-place for his foot. II. GOD APPEALING TO MAN TO FIND HUI BEST. "Where is the place of my rest? It We should not have de.red to represent God e.s seeking rest, The marv.el of his con- descension is, that he does need his creatures, and even seeks his rest in them. If God were only the embodiment of wisdom, greatness, and power, then his rest might be foUl:ld in some of the everlasting hills. But every being seeks rest according to his ef.iritual nature, his character. The infinitely pure One can only seek rest in goodness. 'lhe infinitely condescending One seeks rest in humility. The infinitely loving One lll4lAII-U. ~ It 498 THE EOOK OF THE PROPHET 1:3.A.IAH. [err. LXVI. 1-24,