Rules for the Lord's Supper

1 Corinthians 11¹⁷Your worship services do you more harm than good. I am certainly not going to praise you for this. ¹⁸I am told that you can't get along with each other when you worship, and I am sure that some of what I have heard is true. ¹⁹You are bound to argue with each other, but it is easy to see which of you have God's approval.
²⁰When you meet together, you don't really celebrate the Lord's Supper. ²¹You even start eating before everyone gets to the meeting, and some of you go hungry, while others get drunk. ²²Don't you have homes where you can eat and drink? Do you hate God's church? Do you want to embarrass people who don't have anything? What can I say to you? I certainly cannot praise you.

The Lord's Supper
(Matthew 26.26-29; Mark 14.22-25; Luke 22.14-20)

²³I have already told you what the Lord Jesus did on the night he was betrayed. And it came from the Lord himself.

He took some bread in his hands. ²⁴Then after he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is given for you. Eat this and remember me."

²⁵After the meal, Jesus took a cup of wine in his hands and said, "This is my blood, and with it God makes his new agreement with you. Drink this and remember me."

²⁶The Lord meant that when you eat this bread and drink from this cup, you tell about his death until he comes.
²⁷But if you eat the bread and drink the wine in a way that isn't worthy of the Lord, you sin against his body and blood. ²⁸That's why you must examine the way you eat and drink. ²⁹If you fail to understand that you are the body of the Lord, you will condemn yourselves by the way you eat and drink. ³⁰That's why many of you are sick and weak and why a lot of others have died. ³¹If we carefully judge ourselves, we won't be punished. ³²But when the Lord judges and punishes us, he does it to keep us from being condemned with the rest of the world.
³³My dear friends, you should wait until everyone gets there before you start eating. ³⁴If you really are hungry, you can eat at home. Then you won't condemn yourselves when you meet together.
After I arrive, I will instruct you about the other matters.

Elisha Heals Naaman

2 Kings 5 Naaman was the commander of the Syrian army. The LORD had helped him and his troops defeat their enemies, so the king of Syria respected Naaman very much. Naaman was a brave soldier, but he had leprosy.
²One day while the Syrian troops were raiding Israel, they captured a girl, and she became a servant of Naaman's wife. ³Some time later the girl said, "If your husband Naaman would go to the prophet in Samaria, he would be cured of his leprosy."
⁴When Naaman told the king what the girl had said, ⁵the king replied, "Go ahead! I will give you a letter to take to the king of Israel."
Naaman left and took along seven hundred fifty pounds of silver, one hundred fifty pounds of gold, and ten new outfits. ⁶He also carried the letter to the king of Israel. It said, "I am sending my servant Naaman to you. Would you cure him of his leprosy?"
⁷When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes in fear and shouted, "That Syrian king believes I can cure this man of leprosy! Does he think I'm God with power over life and death? He must be trying to pick a fight with me."
⁸As soon as Elisha the prophet heard what had happened, he sent the Israelite king this message: "Why are you so afraid? Send the man to me, so that he will know there is a prophet in Israel."
⁹Naaman left with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house. ¹⁰Elisha sent someone outside to say to him, "Go wash seven times in the Jordan River. Then you'll be completely cured."
¹¹But Naaman stormed off, grumbling, "Why couldn't he come out and talk to me? I thought for sure he would stand in front of me and pray to the LORD his God, then wave his hand over my skin and cure me. ¹²What about the Abana River or the Pharpar River? Those rivers in Damascus are just as good as any river in Israel. I could have washed in them and been cured."
¹³His servants went over to him and said, "Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. So why don't you do what he said? Go wash and be cured."
¹⁴Naaman walked down to the Jordan; he waded out into the water and stooped down in it seven times, just as Elisha had told him. Right away, he was cured, and his skin became as smooth as a child's.
¹⁵Naaman and his officials went back to Elisha. Naaman stood in front of him and announced, "Now I know that the God of Israel is the only God in the whole world. Sir, would you please accept a gift from me?"
¹⁶"I am a servant of the living LORD," Elisha answered, "and I swear that I will not take anything from you."
Naaman kept begging, but Elisha kept refusing. ¹⁷Finally Naaman said, "If you won't accept a gift, then please let me take home as much soil as two mules can pull in a wagon. Sir, from now on I will offer sacrifices only to the LORD. ¹⁸But I pray that the LORD will forgive me when I go into the temple of the god Rimmon and bow down there with the king of Syria."
¹⁹"Go on home, and don't worry about that," Elisha replied. Then Naaman left.

Elisha Places a Curse on Gehazi

After Naaman had gone only a short distance, ²⁰Gehazi said to himself, "Elisha let that Syrian off too easy. He should have taken Naaman's gift. I swear by the living LORD that I will talk to Naaman myself and get something from him." ²¹So he hurried after Naaman.
When Naaman saw Gehazi running after him, he got out of his chariot to meet him. Naaman asked, "Is everything all right?"
²²"Yes," Gehazi answered. "But my master has sent me to tell you about two young prophets from the hills of Ephraim. They came asking for help, and now Elisha wants to know if you would give them about seventy-five pounds of silver and some new clothes?"
²³"Sure," Naaman replied. "But why don't you take twice that amount of silver?" He convinced Gehazi to take it all, then put the silver in two bags. He handed the bags and the clothes to his two servants, and they carried them for Gehazi.
²⁴When they reached the hill where Gehazi lived, he took the bags from the servants and placed them in his house, then sent the men away. After they had gone, ²⁵Gehazi went in and stood in front of Elisha, who asked, "Gehazi, where have you been?"
"Nowhere, sir," Gehazi answered.
²⁶Elisha asked, "Don't you know that my spirit was there when Naaman got out of his chariot to talk with you? Gehazi, you have no right to accept money or clothes, olive orchards or vineyards, sheep or cattle, or servants. ²⁷Because of what you've done, Naaman's leprosy will now be on you and your descendants forever!"
Suddenly, Gehazi's skin became white with leprosy, and he left.

OBADIAH

Edom's Pride and Punishment

The LORD God gave Obadiah a message about Edom,
and this is what we heard:
"I, the LORD, have sent a messenger
with orders for the nations to attack Edom."

²The LORD said to Edom: I will make you the weakest
and most despised nation.
³You live in a mountain fortress,
because your pride makes you feel safe from attack,
but you are mistaken.
⁴I will still bring you down,
even if you fly higher than an eagle
or nest among the stars.
I, the LORD, have spoken!

⁵If thieves break in at night, they steal only what they want.
And people who harvest grapes
always leave some unpicked.
But, Edom, you are doomed!
⁶Everything you treasure most will be taken from you.
⁷Your allies can't be trusted.
They will force you out of your own country.
Your best friends will trick and trap you,
even before you know it.

⁸Edom, when this happens, I, the LORD,
will destroy all your marvelous wisdom.
⁹Warriors from the city of Teman will be terrified,
and you descendants of Esau will be wiped out.

The LORD Condemns Edom's Cruelty

¹⁰You were cruel to your relatives, the descendants of Jacob.
Now you will be destroyed, disgraced forever.
¹¹You stood there and watched
as foreigners entered Jerusalem and took what they wanted.
In fact, you were no better than those foreigners.

¹²Why did you celebrate
when such a dreadful disaster struck your relatives?
Why were you so pleased
when everyone in Judah was suffering?
¹³They are my people, and you were cruel to them.
You went through their towns, sneering
and stealing whatever was left.
¹⁴In their time of torment, you ambushed refugees
and handed them over to their attackers.

The LORD Will Judge the Nations

¹⁵The day is coming when I, the LORD,
will judge the nations.
And, Edom, you will pay in full for what you have done.

¹⁶I forced the people of Judah to drink the wine of my anger
on my sacred mountain.
Soon the neighboring nations must drink their fill--
then vanish without a trace.

Victory for Israel

¹⁷The LORD's people who escape will go to Mount Zion,
and it will be holy.
Then Jacob's descendants will capture the land of those
who took their land.
¹⁸Israel will be a fire,
and Edom will be straw going up in flames.
The LORD has spoken!

¹⁹The people of Israel who live in the Southern Desert
will take the land of Edom.
Those who live in the hills will capture Philistia,
Ephraim, and Samaria.
And the tribe of Benjamin will conquer Gilead.

²⁰Those who return from captivity will control Phoenicia
as far as Zarephath.
Captives from Jerusalem who were taken to Sepharad
will capture the towns of the Southern Desert.
²¹Those the LORD has saved will live on Mount Zion
and rule over Edom.
Then the kingdom will belong to the LORD.