Ver. 1. Thus saith the Lard.] The same he saith in effect here in this last chapter that he had done in the first, rejecting the Jews’ vain confidence in their temple and sacrifices, and showing that he was neither confined to their temple nor contented with their sacrifices, so long as the hidden man of the heart and the spiritual worship was wanting—so long as they neglected his laws and served their own lusts. (Isaiah 66:3) Heaven is my throne.] Coelum est solium meum; there do I manifest the most glorious and visible signs of my presence; there I am in a special manner worshipped according to mine excellent greatness; and there my courtiers have a more ardent zeal for me than those flatterers had for Darius. (Daniel 6:7) The earth is my footstool.] So it should be ours, since God hath in Christ “put all things under our feet.” (Psalms 8:6) The earth hath its name in Hebrew from treading upon; and terra a terendo, these earthly things should be trampled on as base and bootless. Where is the house that ye build unto me?] q.d., A house indeed I commanded to be built for me, but not to hold me, or there to keep me cooped up as in a cell, that, you should therehence conclude, The temple, God’s house, shall never perish; therefore neither shall we. You must know that I am intra, et extra, et supra, et circa, et infra omnia, within and without, and above and about, and beneath all things. “ Enter praesenter Deus hic et ubique potenter. ” This the heathens knew. Empedocles said that God was a circle, the centre whereof is everywhere, the circumference nowhere. This the Turks acknowledge, by building their mosques or temples open at the top, to show that God is nowhere circumscriptively and definitively, but repletively everywhere. He is higher than heaven, saith Bernard, deeper than hell, larger than earth, broader than the sea: he is nowhere, and yet everywhere, yet he is everywhere all-present. The heavens have a large place, but they have one part here and another there; but the Lord is totally present wheresoever present, not commensurable by any place whatsoever.
Ver. 2. For all those things hath my hand made.] And could not I, then, have made myself a house without your help if I had listed or needed? Required I a temple for any other use or purpose but for the furtherance of your faith in Christ and love one to another? “These things have I made,” yet these all I regard not in comparison. But To this man will I look,] viz., With special intimation of my care and kindness— q.d., To thee be it spoken, I have an eye to thee. Even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit.] Sept., Humble and quiet, Vera Sabbata agens, that being poor in spirit hath a Sabbath of spirit, comforting himself in the Lord his God: to such God looketh. He cannot look upwards, saith one, because he hath none above him; nor on either side, because he hath none equal unto him: therefore he is said to look down, and that also upon the humble and broken-hearted, with singular delight and complacence. Humilitas est thronus sapphirinus in quo Deus cum maiestate residet. And trembleth at my word,] viz., With a filial fear flowing from faith in Christ, trembling at the threatenings before they come into execution. This is a point of singular prudence, for God therefore threateneth that he may not inflict punishment: but ‘they that tremble not in hearing, shall be crushed to pieces in feeling,’ said that martyr. What, then, will be the end of such as hear the menaces of God’s mouth no otherwise than they do the stories of foreign wars or the predictions of a prognostication, which they think may come to pass, and it may be not? ηουχον.
Ver. 3. He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man.] Unless, together with his ox, he kill his corruptions, and lay fast hold upon Christ (who himself was sacrificed for us, 1 Corinthians 5:7) by a lively faith. Heathens sacrificed men to Saturn; dogs also, and swine, and other unclean creatures, to their other dunghill deities. Mass priests do the like by their cruelty, hypocrisy, idolatry, impudence, luxury: their prayers, therefore, fastings, penances, pilgrimages, &c., are not accepted. He that sacrificeth a lamb.] Unless with it he sacrifice his lusts, and look to “the Lamb of God, slain from the beginning of the world.” As if he cut off a dog’s neck.] Heb., As if he necked a dog, that is, decolled him, beheaded him for sacrifice: this was absolutely forbidden. (Deuteronomy 23:18) The Athenians also suffered not a dog to enter into their tower dedicated to Minerva, for his heat in venery and ill savour, saith Plutarch. He that offereth an oblation.] Unless with it he present his body for a sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God. [as Romans 12:1] Is as if he offered swine’s blood.] Blood was not to be offered at all in an oblation or meat offering, but meal, oil, wine; (Leviticus 2) much less swine’s blood. See Leviticus 11:7. He that burneth incense.] In honour of me, unless his heart ascend up withal in those pillars of sweet smoke, as Manoah’s angel did in the smoke of the sacrifice. Is as if he blessed an idol,] i.e., Gave thanks to an idol (called here by a name that signifieth vanity or vexation) as if he were a god: in doing whereof God holdeth himself less dishonoured than by their hypocritical services performed to himself. (Ezekiel 20:39) Yea, they have chosen their own ways.] Which must needs be naught: Nemo sibi de suo palpet. Are ye not carnal and walk as men, saith Paul that is, as naughty men. Horreo quicquid de meo est, ut meus sim. Excerebraret. -Vulg. Plut., Ελληνικ. Bernard.