The "Living" God

Four times in the book of Hebrews the inspired author refers to God as "the living God." I realized that while I was reading through Hebrews again, looking for recurrent words. Apparently it was a description the author knew his readers would recognize, understand, and appreciate.

I didn't. I sat there looking at the phrase and realizing I'd never really given it any thought. What does it mean, that God is the "living" God? Intuitively I assume it means he offers some advantages over a "dead" god. But that goes without saying, doesn't it? So then, why say it? And why say it four times in one letter?

I got out my trusty ESV concordance and picked out every occasion when God is referred to as "the living God." Some of the accounts are redundant, the same record in two or more places. But there were four Old Testament uses that stood out as singularly helpful.

The phrase first appears in Deuteronomy 5:26. This is the retelling of the Mount Sinai meeting between YHWH and his people. The mountain rumbles with thunder and smoke. The people are terrified at the voice of God and very, very aware of the death sentence incurred should any of them touch the mountain while God is present. In their reasonable panic they approach Moses with their desire that he risk his life for them and be their spokesman. Verse twenty-six captures their awe and their fear: For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire as we have, and has still lived?

The comparison is life and death and who is subject to death and who is not. They live in fear for their lives before a God who has no fear of death. The living God is the God who causes death but does not die himself.

I like that. I like it that God is subject neither to death nor fear of death. I like it because I'll never, ever turn to God with my fears, or hopes, or sins, or praise and hear, "I'm sorry, sir. God died two weeks ago. We held a lovely memorial service for him, but he is no longer available. Is there someone else that can help you? An angel? A saint?" The living God is eternal, unchanging, constant, and consistent. He will always be there when I turn to him (and he will always be watching when I don't turn to him.)

I love the next time the phrase "living God" is used in the Bible as well. It's in Joshua 3:10, And Joshua said, "Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites."

Replace all the "ites" in the passage with the things in your life that keep you from fully enjoying the immensity of God's blessing. Sin. Bad attitudes. Disappointment. Disobedience. Weak faith. These are the things that not only exist as obstacles to true joy, but actively oppose real joy in our lives. And here in this verse God makes it clear that he is more than merely adequate to uproot and eliminate opposition to joy in our lives. He "will without fail drive out." I take that to imply that God, the living God, is not subject to failing health or diminished strength. He, the living God, will always at all times retain the capacity and the ability to accomplish his good pleasure in your life! There will never be a moment when he is incapacitated, winded, exhausted, or otherwise unable to work the work that makes us holy.

Third, this living God who is not subject to death or failing health, is not subject to social expulsion either. Remember David and Goliath? Remember the nine foot tall guy who terrorized the armies of Israel and mocked their God? David asked, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" It's not just that Goliath challenged Israel. Goliath challenged God and all God's ability to deliver victory to his own glory and his people's joy.

And you know how God responded. One kid, one sling, one stone, and one dead giant! Goliath attempted to convince God's people that God was irrelevant, absent, foolish, powerless, disengaged, unimportant, a force not to be reckoned with by the enlightened in the culture of the moment. We hear echoes of his mockery even now, but let us also hear the all-powerful voice of the living God who will not be expelled from among his people by the uninformed and faithless ranting of cultural giants. The living God will not be silenced just because some fool says in his heart there is no God. The living God does not slip away into oblivion just because some finite earthling says so. He lives, and he will demonstrate his life on behalf of his people!

Finally, the living God is not subject to deprivation. Psalm 42:2 says, My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Imagine a man dying of thirst being handed an empty flask. Imagine crawling through the burning sands of a desert to an oasis with trees but no spring, no water. Now imagine the same oasis with cold, clear water bubbling savingly to the surface. God, the living God, is not an empty well or a dry pitcher. He is streams in the desert, the fountain of living water.

Do your own concordance search for the "living God" and you'll find a few more references that deepen the understanding and appreciation for God as the living God. Idols are "dead" gods unable to move or feed themselves or help those who serve them. Not so the "living God." Other gods fall to the machinations of evil men. Not so the "living God." Other people die without hope. Not so the people of the "living God."

We need to be reminded that God is more than we think he is. We need to be reminded that there are depths of his person and his revelation we have not yet plumbed. We need to open our minds and our hearts so that he can teach us about himself and his Son. The more we know of him the more we shall be like him. The more we are like him, the more we will fit into his kingdom, both now and forever.