Kind of surprised me. I would have thought the term would have been found more often in the Scriptures. Found 13 times in the New Testament, only 15 times in all of the Old Testament. This morning I encountered it twice as I continued my reading in the book of Daniel. Get out the blue colored pencil . . . underline it . . . my God is THE LIVING GOD!

Not quite sure why it jumped off the page as I was reading Daniel 6 . . . perhaps because of the contrast to the gods being worshiped in Daniel 5. In chapter 5 the worshipper is King Belshazzar, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man on earth. He puts on a big party . . . invites a thousand people . . . and the only thing bigger than the feast he’s hosting is his ego. He starts in on the wine and then gets an idea, “Bring me the vessels of gold and of silver that my dad took from the temple in Jerusalem . . . it’s fitting that I should be drinking from the cups made for the God of Israel.” And so he drinks from the consecrated vessels . . . and he passes them around to his lords, his wives, and his concubines to drink from. And as they drink from the holy cups made to be used in service before the holy God, they instead “praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone” (5:4). Or as Paul might say, “they worshiped and served created things instead of the the Creator” (Rom. 1:25 NLT).

Real live people praising inanimate objects. Kind of has a way of boosting the old self-esteem when you can hold the god of gold in your hands . . . when you can command the god of silver to be used to satisfy the intoxicating desires of your over-inflated sense of self-worth. When your god is something you can control, it makes you bigger than the god. But Belshazzar is called out by “the Most High God” who “rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom He will” (5:21) . . . “the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways” (5:23). In lifting up the god of gold, this brash king was lifting up himself “against the Lord of heaven” (5:23) . . . the living God . . . bad move!

Cue Darius the Mede . . . successor to Belshazzar the dead. You don’t get the sense that Darius has too much ego . . . just not enough smarts. He’s tricked into throwing his highest held official, Daniel, into a den of lions. This Daniel who Darius knew to be “faithful, and no error or fault was found in him” (6:4) . . . this Daniel who God knew to be faithful as he had served under three pagan kings in a foreign land in a way that was true to the King of his homeland . . . this Daniel who was condemned to die because he relentlessly sought, faithfully trusted, and continually served the living God.

And the morning after the night before when he has Daniel deposited with the carnivores, Darius rushes to the lions and den and in anguish cries out, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?” You know the answer . . . Yup!

But what gets me is Darius’ recognition of the nature of Daniel’s God . . . that He is a living God!

Gold and silver make lousy gods. But the living God is the God who delivers from destruction. He is not a god that we can manipulate at will to satisfy our cravings, but He is the Sovereign God . . . omniscient . . . omnipresent . . . omnipotent. He is the King of all kings . . . He is the Lord of all lords.

. . . for He is the living God,
             enduring forever;
     His kingdom shall never be destroyed,
             and His dominion shall be to the end.
    He delivers and rescues;
    He works signs and wonders
             in heaven and on earth . . . (Daniel 6:26b-27a ESV)

To Him be all glory . . . forever and ever . . . amen!