The "Living God" Scriptures

Below are scriptures that contain the expression "Living God" in the American Standard Version of the Bible:

Deuteronomy 5:26 - For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?

Regardless of the instrument God used, the living God spoken of here is the same one person who is God who spoke through the prophets of old as recorded in Hebrews 1:1,2.

Joshua 3:10 - And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Hivite, and the Perizzite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Jebusite.

Joshua was not claiming that the "living God" had become a man of flesh and blood in order to dwell among the children of Israel, nor is there any reference in this verse to the one identified in the New Testament as the Son of the living God."

1 Samuel 17:26 - And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?

1 Samuel 17:36 - Thy servant smote both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.

2 Kings 19:4 - It may be Jehovah thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Jehovah thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.

2 Kings 19:16 - Incline thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open thine eyes, O Jehovah, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, wherewith he hath sent him to defy the living God.

Psalms 42:2 - My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: When shall I come and appear before God?

David was not speaking of thirsting for the Messiah, although later it is revealed that the only way to be reconciled to God is through the Messiah. -- John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 5:10,12-19; 1 Corinthians 15:21,22; 2 Corinthians 5:18,19; 1 Timothy 2:5,6; Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 2:2.

Psalms 84:2 - My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of Jehovah; My heart and my flesh cry out unto the living God.

The Psalmist here refers Jehovah, the God of the Messiah (Micah 5:4), as the living God. Jesus, however, is said to have cried out to his God who was able to save him from death. (Hebrews 5:7) Thus, the one whom the living God anointed and sent is distinguished from being the anointed one who was sent. -- Isaiah 61:1,2; John 17:1,3.

Isaiah 37:4 - It may be Jehovah thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Jehovah thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.

Isaiah 37:17 - Incline thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open thine eyes, O Jehovah, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to defy the living God.

Jeremiah 10:10 - But Jehovah is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembleth, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation.

Jesus identified the "living God" -- "the true God" -- here as being his Father who had sent him. -- John 17:1,3.

Jeremiah 23:36 - And the burden of Jehovah shall ye mention no more: for every man's own word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of Jehovah of hosts our God.

Daniel 6:20 - And when he came near unto the den to Daniel, he cried with a lamentable voice; the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?

Daniel 6:26 - I make a decree, that in all the dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, And his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed; and his dominion shall be even unto the end.

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

This prophecy was fulfilled in the Messiah, for those who recognized and accepted him became the sons of the living God. While this was initially only offered to the natural Israel, later the door was open for Gentile believers to become sons of the living God. -- John 1:12; Romans 1:16; 10:12; Galatians 3:26.28.

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

Peter definitely identified Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, and not as being the living God.

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

Here the high priest did ask Jesus if he was living God, but rather if he was the Christ, the Son of [living] God.

Acts 14:15 - and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good tidings, that ye should turn from these vain things unto a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is.

Romans 9:26 - And it shall be, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, There shall they be called sons of the living God.

2 Corinthians 3:3 - being made manifest that ye are an 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 tables [that are] hearts of flesh.

2 Corinthians 6:16 - And what agreement hath a temple of God with idols? for we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

1 Timothy 3:15 - but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

1 Timothy 4:10 - For to this end we labor and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe.

2 Timothy 3:12 - Yea, and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

Hebrews 3:12 - Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God.

Hebrews 9:14 - how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Hebrews 10:31 - It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 12:22 - but ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels.

Revelation 7:2 - And I saw another angel ascend from the sunrising, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a great voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea.

One should note that the Living God is always presented as being one person, not more than one person. The term, "living God" is never applied to Jesus in the Bible. Jesus is differentiated from being the "Living God" in Matthew 16:16.