Chapter 1: The Living God

Throughout time, and to this very day, people around the world worship many gods. Unlike the creator of the heavens and the earth (Psalms 102:25)¹, these false gods are gods of silver and gold, wood and stone, which neither hear nor speak, neither eat nor smell, and which are formed by the hands of men (Deuteronomy 4:28)². They are unknown gods of the imagination (Acts 17:23)³ that cannot save (Isaiah 45:20)⁴.

The God that created all things is the eternally existent God. He is the God which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8)⁵.

On which God spoke to Moses saying, I am The I Am. Moreover he said, Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, The I Am hath sent me to you. (Exodus 3:14 CTB)

And God spoke to Moses, saying, I am THE BEING; and he said, Thus shall ye say to the children of Israel, THE BEING has sent me to you. (Exodus 3:14 BES)

The “I am”, the “being”, is the living God, but for him to be our God we, too, must be living. Not simply alive in a body, but alive in the spirit, quickened by God’s mercy and grace.

He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err. (Mark 12:27 KJV)

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) (Ephesians 2:5 KJV)

Crucially, as with any living thing, the life within must be nourished, else it will wither and we will find we have become stunted,  stagnant, or lukewarm, the very rebuke that Jesus gives to the Laodiceans (Revelation 3:16). But the good news is that we can keep ourselves nourished by the word of God, which is food for the spirit within.

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4 KJV)

And he afflicted thee and straitened thee with hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thy fathers knew not; that he might teach thee that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live. (Deuteronomy 8:3 BES)

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)

And so our God is the living God and he is acknowledged as such throughout the scriptures.

The Children of Israel Who Acknowledged the Living God

Moses Spoke of the Living God

The first mention of the living God is in Deuteronomy, chapters 4 and 5, when Moses speaks to the children of Israel in the fortieth year of their sojourning in the wilderness and in the month before his death, the time of his being added, or gathered, unto his people. While speaking, Moses recounts all that the Lord did for them in taking them out of Egypt and how immediately they turned to idolatry. He ends with the song of Moses and the final blessings before his death.

And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first [day] of the month, Moses spoke to all the children of Israel, according to all things which the Lord commanded him for them: (Deuteronomy 1:3 BES)

In recounting all things, Moses reminds the children of Israel that they witnessed the living God descend in fire on Mount Sinai and speak to them out of the fire in the third month following the exodus.

if a nation have heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard and hast lived; … His voice was made audible from heaven to instruct thee, and he shewed thee upon the earth his great fire, and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. (Deuteronomy 4:33,36 BES)

Moses then goes on to paraphrase what the children of Israel said in response, showing that they knew he was the living God.

For what flesh [is there] which has heard the voice of the living God, speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we [have heard], and shall live? (Deuteronomy 5:26 BES)

Following the death of Moses, and when all was prepared for the crossing of the Jordan, Jesus (Joshua) gathered together the children of Israel to hear the word of the Lord. Jesus reiterated what Moses told them before his death, ensuring it was crystal clear that the God who is about to take them over the Jordan is the living God.

Hereby ye shall know that the living God [is] among you, and will utterly destroy from before our face the Chananite, and the Chettite and Pherezite, and the Evite, and the Amorite, and the Gergesite, and the Jebusite. (Joshua 3:10 BES)

David Spoke of the Living God

Before David slew Goliath, and while he was still young, he knew and understood that the God he served was unique from the gods of the uncircumcised, in that his God was the living God.

Thy servant smote both the lion and the bear, and the uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them: shall I not go and smite him, and remove this day a reproach from Israel? for who [is] this uncircumcised one, who has defied the army of the living God? (1 Samuel 17:36 BES)

David also expresses his thirst for the living God in one of his psalms.

For the end, [a Psalm] for instruction, for the sons of Core. As the hart earnestly desires the fountains of water, so my soul earnestly longs for thee, O God. My soul has thirsted for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 42:1-2 BES)

Hezekiah Spoke of the Living God

Hezekiah, when under threat of attack by the king of Assyria, referred to God as the living God when sending a steward, a scribe and elders of the priests to Isaiah (verse 4, below) and also when praying to the Lord after receiving a letter from the king of Assyria (verse 17, below). These events are also recorded in Isaiah 37:4⁶ and Isaiah 37:17⁷.

Peradventure the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rapsakes, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the living God and to revile him with the words which the Lord thy God has heard: and thou shalt offer [thy] prayer for the remnant that is found. (2 Kings 19:4 BES)

Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear: open, Lord, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherim, which he has sent to reproach the living God. (2 Kings 19:16 BES)

The Psalms Spoke of the Living God

Two of the Psalms for the end, or the conclusion, written for the sons of Core, speak of the living God.

My soul has thirsted for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 41:3 BES) [Psalm 42:2 MT]

My soul longs, and faints for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God. (Psalms 83:3 BES) [Psalms 84:2 MT]

The Mede Who Acknowledged the Living God

Beyond the children of Israel recognising God as the living God, Darius the Mede also recognised him as such, calling Daniel the servant of the living God the morning that he went to the lion’s den to see if he were still alive.

And when he drew near to the den, he cried with a loud voice, Daniel, servant of the living God, has thy God, whom thou servest continually, been able to deliver thee from the lion’s mouth? (Daniel 6:20 BES)

And when Darius makes a new decree after Daniel is saved from the mouth of the lion, he not only calls God the living God, but also includes in his decree a prophecy of God’s kingdom, his character and his marvellous works.

This decree has been set forth by me in every dominion of my kingdom, that [men] tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living and eternal God, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed, and his dominion is for ever. He helps and delivers, and works signs and wonders in the heaven and on the earth, who has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions. (Daniel 6:26-27 BES)

A Prophecy of of the Sons of the Living God

Fittingly, the last mention of the living God in the Old Testament is the prophecy in Hosea that all who believe the words of God — from the promises to the record of his son (1 John 5:10-11)⁸ — shall be called the sons of the living God. Let us praise the one true living God for this beautiful prophecy that is still being fulfilled in these last days as believers continue to be added to the congregation of the firstborn. (Hebrews 12:23)⁹

Yet the number of the children of Israel was as the sand of the sea, which shall not be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said to them, Ye are not my people, even they shall be called the sons of the living God. (Hosea 1:10 BES)

New Testament Mentions of the Living God

Peter Spoke of the Living God

In the New Testament, Peter refers, twice, to Jesus being the Son of the living God.

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. (Matthew 16:16 KJV)

And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. (John 6:69 KJV)

The High Priest Spoke of the Living God

Even the unbelieving high priest acknowledges the living nature of God.

But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. (Matthew 26:63 KJV)

Paul Spoke of the Living God

Paul calls God the living God eleven times:

And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: (Acts 14:15 KJV)

And it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye [are] not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. (Romans 9:26 KJV)

[Forasmuch as ye are] manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. (2 Corinthians 3:3 KJV)

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in [them]; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (2 Corinthians 6:16 KJV)

But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:15 KJV)

For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. (1 Timothy 4:10 KJV)

Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded; nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; (1 Timothy 6:17 KJV)

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. (Hebrews 3:12 KJV)

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14 KJV)

[It is] a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:31 KJV)

But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, (Hebrews 12:22 KJV)

John Spoke of the Living God

And finally, John wrote of the living God in the Book of Revelation.

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, (Revelation 7:2 KJV)

Praise be to the living God that he is the eternally existent one, and that he has given eternal life, the same life that is in his son, to all who believe his record of his son.

If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (1 John 5:9-11 KJV)

Let us always remember the Lord our God is the one true living God who sees, and hears, and speaks. May his eyes be upon us, his ears open to our prayers, and his words guide our hearts and our steps into life everlasting.

Verse References