Isaiah 66:1

"Heaven is my throne, while the earth is my footstool." … Haven't you also read that other text, "Who measured the heaven with the palm of his hand?" … Whoever sat in the palm of his own hand?…Does the same heaven become wide when he is sitting in it and narrow when he is measuring it? Or is God the same size in his seat as he is in his palm? If that is the case, God did not make us in his own likeness, because we have palms that are much narrower than the part of the body we sit with. But if he is as broad in the palm as he is broad in the beam, then he made very unequal parts for us. No, that is not where the likeness lies. Such an idol should be ashamed of itself in a Christian mind. So then, take "heaven" as standing for all the saints, since earth too stands for all who are on the earth, "Let all the earth worship you."

In hesitation I turn to Christ, since I am herein seeking him; and I discover how the earth may be worshiped without impiety, how his footstool may be worshiped without impiety. For he took on himself earth from earth, and he received flesh from the flesh of Mary. And because he walked here in very flesh and gave that very flesh to us to eat for our salvation, and no one eats that flesh unless he has first worshiped, we have found out in what sense such a footstool of our Lord may be worshiped, and not only that we do not sin in worshiping it but that we sin in not worshiping.

"And worship his footstool for it is holy." What is this footstool of Jesus that is holy? We read in another place: "The heavens are my throne, the earth is my footstool"; and here, "worship his footstool." If earth is Jesus' footstool, and the psalm says worship his footstool, then is earth to be adored? How, then, do we read in the apostle that we must worship the Creator, not the creature? In Scripture, adoration conveys two different notions: worship as an act toward God and worship in the sense of reverence. When we use the word worship in relation to God, we mean the adoration that is proper to God. When, however, we use the term with reference to a human being, as for example, Sarah worshiped Abraham and Elijah worshiped Ahab—a most ungodly king—it does not mean that Elijah worshiped Ahab as if he were God but that this worship was more like a greeting.Now, we are ready to examine the words "and worship his footstool," and [we will] see in which way the word worship is intended. Do we adore God's footstool just as we adore God or in the same sense that we worship and pay respect to a person? We have read in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and in another of the prophets, "How the Lord has hallowed his footstool!" In this passage, his footstool is Jerusalem, or the temple. And so, the reference is historical. We shall now consider the verse "and worship his footstool" from another point of view. If feet rest on a footstool, the words "Let us worship in the place where his feet have stood" likewise refer to a footstool. In that event, we may hold to the letter and mean, for example, that place where he was born, where he was crucified, where he arose from the dead. This is the explanation for beginners.… [Or] Jesus' footstool is the soul of the one who believes. Happy the person in whose heart Jesus sets his feet every day! If only he would set his feet in my heart! […]

He has not even built a house for himself! He has nothing to do with space. Even if it is written that "the heaven is his throne," he is not contained as the words suggest.

Thus says the Lord. Here he determines the manner of execution of the sentence. And first, in particular, as to the Jews; second, universally, as to all: but I know their works, and their thoughts (Isa 66:18). The first is divided into two parts: in …