These are God's own questions, first spoken through Isaiah (Isaiah 66:1), and Stephen quotes them to answer the charge against him. False witnesses had said he spoke "blasphemous words against this holy place" (Acts 6:13). Stephen does not belittle the temple. He says plainly that "Solomon built him an house" (Acts 7:47). Then he adds, "Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands" (Acts 7:48). Barnes explains that Stephen, charged with speaking against the temple, now shows that "God does not need such a temple." The first question asks what building could ever house the Maker of heaven and earth. The second asks where God could settle down as though He were confined to one spot. Gill puts it this way: God "did indeed dwell in his temple, but he was not confined to it."

God's questions are answered by the next line of the same quotation, which is one more question: "Hath not my hand made all these things?" (Acts 7:50). The Maker of everything cannot be housed by what He made. Stephen does not wait for the council to reply. He turns on them: "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost" (Acts 7:51). When they heard these things, "they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth" (Acts 7:54).

The council called the temple "this holy place" (Acts 6:13), and speaking against it was treated as blasphemy. The witnesses claimed he said that Jesus of Nazareth "shall destroy this place" (Acts 6:14). Stephen's words come from Isaiah 66:1-2, where the KJV reads, "where is the house that ye build unto me?" Barnes notes, "The place is not literally quoted, but the sense is given." The Greek of Acts asks "poion oikon," literally "what sort of house," which is why the ESV says "What kind of house." The word for "rest" is katapausis, a place of rest or repose. Barnes notes that Solomon expressed this sentiment when the temple was dedicated: "the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?" (1 Kings 8:27).

God asks these questions, and they show how great He is. No building, however fine, can hold the One whose throne is heaven. Gill says the throne and footstool are "not to be literally understood, but are images and figures, representing the majesty, sovereignty, and immensity of God." Matthew Henry writes, "The whole world is God's temple, in which he is every where present, and fills it with his glory."

This was not a new idea that Stephen invented. It came from Israel's own prophet and from Solomon's own prayer (1 Kings 8:27). Henry sees God's plan moving forward: the tabernacle gave way to the temple, and now "the earthly temple gives way to the spiritual one." God was never trapped in a building. He was always greater than the place where His people met Him.