Thursday of the Second Week After the Epiphany

 

January 22, 2026

Today's Reading: Catechism: Second Commandment

Daily Lectionary: Joel 2:1-17; Romans 11:1-24

“To confuse the devil, I say, we should always have this holy name in our mouth, so that the devil may not be able to injure us as he wishes.” (Large Catechism I 72)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Have you ever considered that the first person in the Bible to invoke the name of God was the devil? “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1). It’s not God’s peculiar name, the name He reveals to Moses from the burning bush, but the devil has God’s name in his mouth nonetheless. 

But He uses God’s name not for prayer or praise or thanksgiving to the one who created him and the creation around him. He uses it to confuse the issue, to cause injury. Out of envy, he twists God’s Word ever so much and thereby profanes His name. Questioning God in such a way makes Him a liar and drags His name through the mud.

The proper response to the devil’s misuse of God’s name would be a proper use of God’s name. How is God’s name properly used? “We should…call upon it in every trouble…” (Small Catechism, Explanation to the Second Commandment). Eve and Adam were certainly in trouble at that moment. Rather than engage the devil in a debate built on a false invocation of God’s name, they should have immediately turned to prayer. 

Furthermore, God’s name is used properly when it is used to apply right teaching (Large Catechism I 64). When the devil says, “Did God really say…?” the proper response according to the Second Commandment is, “Thus says the Lord.” 

When you have the words of Holy Scripture in your mouth (for there is where you find what the Lord says), you have the holy name of God in your mouth. This confuses the devil because he is used to people simply taking him at his word. But his word does not support the truth. His word is not oriented towards the good. His word is not a living, active, creative word. His words are empty. 

The devil wants to injure us with his word, and we still bear the wounds of his first injury in the sin that has been passed down to us. But God’s Word heals, and whoever calls upon His name will be saved.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a believer’s ear! It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds, And drives away our fear. (LSB 524:1)