 |  |
"Who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of
the midst of the fire?"
Looking back over the chapter with this statement before us, we shall realize, as never
before perhaps, how definitely the giving of the law testified to the living God. He it was
Who made a covenant with Israel (verse 2); Who talked with them face to face in the
mount (verse 4); Who led them out of bondage (verses 6-11); Who instituted the
Sabbath in connection with His own work of creation; and gave to Israel His holy law
(verses 12-21).
The Lord proved Himself to be the "living God" when, under Joshua, He fulfilled His
promise concerning the land (Josh. 3: 10). David, also, uses the title when he speaks of
the blasphemy of Goliath in defying the armies of "the living God" (I Sam. 17: 26).
O.T. consciousness of the living God seems to reach its zenith in Psalm 84::
"My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh
crieth out for the living God" (Psa. 84: 2).
Passing over the many passages that use the phrase, "As the Lord liveth", we turn now
to the N.T. to see something of the weight of testimony there. As we read chapter after
chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, conviction deepens until, when we reach
chapter 16:, we find the echo of our own hearts in the testimony of Peter:
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16: 16).
When Paul spoke to the men of Lystra, who were attempting to offer sacrifice to
himself and Barnabas, he said:
"We preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God"
(Acts 14: 15).
This characteristic testimony of the Apostle is found again in I Thessalonians:
"How ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God" (I Thess. 1: 9).
In II Corinthians it is the "Spirit of the living God" that writes upon the heart of
the believer; and the believer himself constitutes the "temple of the living God"
(II Cor. 3: 3; 6: 16). In I Timothy the church is called "the church of the living God"
(I Tim. 3: 15), Who is described in the next chapter as the "Saviour of all men,
especially of those that believe" (I Tim. 4: 10).
There are further occurrences of the same title in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In
Heb. 3: 12 unbelief is described as departure from the living God; and in 9: 14 the
service of those whose consciences are purged is "unto the living God". In 10: 31, we
read that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God"; and in 12: 22 the
goal before those who followed in the steps of Abraham and the "great cloud of
witnesses" is "the city of the living God".