Covering the Head in Worship

²I praise you because you always remember me and follow the teachings that I have handed on to you. ³But I want you to understand that Christ is supreme over every man, the husband is supreme over his wife, and God is supreme over Christ. ⁴So a man who prays or proclaims God's message in public worship with his head covered disgraces Christ. ⁵And any woman who prays or proclaims God's message in public worship with nothing on her head disgraces her husband; there is no difference between her and a woman whose head has been shaved. ⁶If the woman does not cover her head, she might as well cut her hair. And since it is a shameful thing for a woman to shave her head or cut her hair, she should cover her head. ⁷A man has no need to cover his head, because he reflects the image and glory of God. But woman reflects the glory of man; ⁸for man was not created from woman, but woman from man. ⁹Nor was man created for woman's sake, but woman was created for man's sake. ¹⁰On account of the angels, then, a woman should have a covering over her head to show that she is under her husband's authority. ¹¹In our life in the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. ¹²For as woman was made from man, in the same way man is born of woman; and it is God who brings everything into existence.
¹³Judge for yourselves whether it is proper for a woman to pray to God in public worship with nothing on her head. ¹⁴Why, nature itself teaches you that long hair on a man is a disgrace, ¹⁵but on a woman it is a thing of beauty. Her long hair has been given her to serve as a covering. ¹⁶But if anyone wants to argue about it, all I have to say is that neither we nor the churches of God have any other custom in worship.

Elisha Helps a Poor Widow

2 Kings 4 The widow of a member of a group of prophets went to Elisha and said, "Sir, my husband has died! As you know, he was a God-fearing man, but now a man he owed money to has come to take away my two sons as slaves in payment for my husband's debt."
²"What shall I do for you?" he asked. "Tell me, what do you have at home?"
"Nothing at all, except a small jar of olive oil," she answered.
³"Go to your neighbors and borrow as many empty jars as you can," Elisha told her. ⁴"Then you and your sons go into the house, close the door, and start pouring oil into the jars. Set each one aside as soon as it is full."
⁵So the woman went into her house with her sons, closed the door, took the small jar of olive oil, and poured oil into the jars as her sons brought them to her. ⁶When they had filled all the jars, she asked if there were any more. "That was the last one," one of her sons answered. And the olive oil stopped flowing. ⁷She went back to Elisha, the prophet, who said to her, "Sell the olive oil and pay all your debts, and there will be enough money left over for you and your sons to live on."

Elisha and the Rich Woman from Shunem

⁸One day Elisha went to Shunem, where a rich woman lived. She invited him to a meal, and from then on every time he went to Shunem he would have his meals at her house. ⁹She said to her husband, "I am sure that this man who comes here so often is a holy man. ¹⁰Let's build a small room on the roof, put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it, and he can stay there whenever he visits us."
¹¹One day Elisha returned to Shunem and went up to his room to rest. ¹²He told his servant Gehazi to go and call the woman. When she came, ¹³he said to Gehazi, "Ask her what I can do for her in return for all the trouble she has had in providing for our needs. Maybe she would like me to go to the king or the army commander and put in a good word for her."
"I have all I need here among my own people," she answered.
¹⁴Elisha asked Gehazi, "What can I do for her then?"
He answered, "Well, she has no son, and her husband is an old man."
¹⁵"Tell her to come here," Elisha ordered. She came and stood in the doorway, ¹⁶and Elisha said to her, "By this time next year you will be holding a son in your arms."
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Please, sir, don't lie to me. You are a man of God!"
¹⁷But, as Elisha had said, at about that time the following year she gave birth to a son.
¹⁸Some years later, at harvest time, the boy went out one morning to join his father, who was in the field with the harvest workers. ¹⁹Suddenly he cried out to his father, "My head hurts! My head hurts!"
"Carry the boy to his mother," the father said to a servant. ²⁰The servant carried the boy back to his mother, who held him in her lap until noon, at which time he died. ²¹She carried him up to Elisha's room, put him on the bed and left, closing the door behind her. ²²Then she called her husband and said to him, "Send a servant here with a donkey. I need to go to the prophet Elisha. I'll be back as soon as I can."
²³"Why do you have to go today?" her husband asked. "It's neither a Sabbath nor a New Moon Festival."
"Never mind," she answered. ²⁴Then she had the donkey saddled, and ordered the servant, "Make the donkey go as fast as it can, and don't slow down unless I tell you to." ²⁵So she set out and went to Mount Carmel, where Elisha was.
Elisha saw her coming while she was still some distance away, and he said to his servant Gehazi, "Look, there comes the woman from Shunem! ²⁶Hurry to her and find out if everything is all right with her, her husband, and her son."
She told Gehazi that everything was all right, ²⁷but when she came to Elisha, she bowed down before him and took hold of his feet. Gehazi was about to push her away, but Elisha said, "Leave her alone. Can't you see she's deeply distressed? And the LORD has not told me a thing about it."
²⁸The woman said to him, "Sir, did I ask you for a son? Didn't I tell you not to get my hopes up?"
²⁹Elisha turned to Gehazi and said, "Hurry! Take my walking stick and go. Don't stop to greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, don't take time to answer. Go straight to the house and hold my stick over the boy."
³⁰The woman said to Elisha, "I swear by my loyalty to the living LORD and to you that I will not leave you!" So the two of them started back together. ³¹Gehazi went on ahead and held Elisha's stick over the child, but there was no sound or any other sign of life. So he went back to meet Elisha and said, "The boy didn't wake up."
³²When Elisha arrived, he went alone into the room and saw the boy lying dead on the bed. ³³He closed the door and prayed to the LORD. ³⁴Then he lay down on the boy, placing his mouth, eyes, and hands on the boy's mouth, eyes, and hands. As he lay stretched out over the boy, the boy's body started to get warm. ³⁵Elisha got up, walked around the room, and then went back and again stretched himself over the boy. The boy sneezed seven times and then opened his eyes. ³⁶Elisha called Gehazi and told him to call the boy's mother. When she came in, he said to her, "Here's your son." ³⁷She fell at Elisha's feet, with her face touching the ground; then she took her son and left.

Two More Miracles

³⁸Once, when there was a famine throughout the land, Elisha returned to Gilgal. While he was teaching a group of prophets, he told his servant to put a big pot on the fire and make some stew for them. ³⁹One of them went out in the fields to get some herbs. He found a wild vine and picked as many gourds as he could carry. He brought them back and sliced them up into the stew, not knowing what they were. ⁴⁰The stew was poured out for the men to eat, but as soon as they tasted it they exclaimed to Elisha, "It's poisoned!"--and wouldn't eat it. ⁴¹Elisha asked for some meal, threw it into the pot, and said, "Pour out some more stew for them." And then there was nothing wrong with it.
⁴²Another time, a man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing Elisha twenty loaves of bread made from the first barley harvested that year, and some freshly-cut heads of grain. Elisha told his servant to feed the group of prophets with this, ⁴³but he answered, "Do you think this is enough for a hundred men?"
Elisha replied, "Give it to them to eat, because the LORD says that they will eat and still have some left over." ⁴⁴So the servant set the food before them, and as the LORD had said, they all ate, and there was still some left over.

The LORD's Judgments

Amos 9 I saw the Lord standing by the altar. He gave the command: "Strike the tops of the Temple columns so hard that the foundation will shake. Break them off and let them fall on the heads of the people. I will kill the rest of the people in war. No one will get away; not one will escape. ²Even if they dig their way down to the world of the dead, I will catch them. Even if they climb up to heaven, I will bring them down. ³If they hide on the top of Mount Carmel, I will search for them and catch them. If they hide from me at the bottom of the sea, I will command the sea monster to bite them. ⁴If they are taken away into captivity by their enemies, I will order them to be put to death. I am determined to destroy them, not to help them."

⁵The Sovereign LORD Almighty touches the earth,
and it quakes;
all who live there mourn.
The whole world rises and falls like the Nile River.
⁶The LORD builds his home in the heavens,
and over the earth he puts the dome of the sky.
He calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out on the earth.
His name is the LORD!

⁷The LORD says, "People of Israel, I think as much of the people of Ethiopia as I do of you. I brought the Philistines from Crete and the Syrians from Kir, just as I brought you from Egypt. ⁸I, the Sovereign LORD, am watching this sinful kingdom of Israel, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. But I will not destroy all the descendants of Jacob.
⁹"I will give the command and shake the people of Israel like grain in a sieve. I will shake them among the nations to remove all who are worthless. ¹⁰The sinners among my people will be killed in war--all those who say, 'God will not let any harm come near us.'"

The Future Restoration of Israel

¹¹The LORD says, "A day is coming when I will restore the kingdom of David, which is like a house fallen into ruins. I will repair its walls and restore it. I will rebuild it and make it as it was long ago. ¹²And so the people of Israel will conquer what is left of the land of Edom and all the nations that were once mine," says the LORD, who will cause this to happen.

¹³"The days are coming," says the LORD,
"when grain will grow faster than it can be harvested,
and grapes will grow faster than the wine can be made.
The mountains will drip with sweet wine,
and the hills will flow with it.
¹⁴I will bring my people back to their land.
They will rebuild their ruined cities and live there;
they will plant vineyards and drink the wine;
they will plant gardens and eat what they grow.
¹⁵I will plant my people on the land I gave them,
and they will not be pulled up again."
The LORD your God has spoken.