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

1 Corinthians 11 ¹⁷In the following instructions, however, I do not praise you, because your meetings for worship actually do more harm than good. ¹⁸In the first place, I have been told that there are opposing groups in your meetings; and this I believe is partly true. ( ¹⁹No doubt there must be divisions among you so that the ones who are in the right may be clearly seen.) ²⁰When you meet together as a group, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat. ²¹For as you eat, you each go ahead with your own meal, so that some are hungry while others get drunk. ²²Don't you have your own homes in which to eat and drink? Or would you rather despise the church of God and put to shame the people who are in need? What do you expect me to say to you about this? Shall I praise you? Of course I don't!
²³For I received from the Lord the teaching that I passed on to you: that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took a piece of bread, ²⁴gave thanks to God, broke it, and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in memory of me." ²⁵In the same way, after the supper he took the cup and said, "This cup is God's new covenant, sealed with my blood. Whenever you drink it, do so in memory of me."
²⁶This means that every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. ²⁷It follows that if one of you eats the Lord's bread or drinks from his cup in a way that dishonors him, you are guilty of sin against the Lord's body and blood. ²⁸So then, you should each examine yourself first, and then eat the bread and drink from the cup. ²⁹For if you do not recognize the meaning of the Lord's body when you eat the bread and drink from the cup, you bring judgment on yourself as you eat and drink. ³⁰That is why many of you are sick and weak, and several have died. ³¹If we would examine ourselves first, we would not come under God's judgment. ³²But we are judged and punished by the Lord, so that we shall not be condemned together with the world.
³³So then, my friends, when you gather together to eat the Lord's Supper, wait for one another. ³⁴And if any of you are hungry, you should eat at home, so that you will not come under God's judgment as you meet together. As for the other matters, I will settle them when I come.

Naaman Is Cured

2 Kings 5 Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, was highly respected and esteemed by the king of Syria, because through Naaman the LORD had given victory to the Syrian forces. He was a great soldier, but he suffered from a dreaded skin disease. ²In one of their raids against Israel, the Syrians had carried off a little Israelite girl, who became a servant of Naaman's wife. ³One day she said to her mistress, "I wish that my master could go to the prophet who lives in Samaria! He would cure him of his disease." ⁴When Naaman heard of this, he went to the king and told him what the girl had said. ⁵The king said, "Go to the king of Israel and take this letter to him."
So Naaman set out, taking thirty thousand pieces of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of fine clothes. ⁶The letter that he took read: "This letter will introduce my officer Naaman. I want you to cure him of his disease."
⁷When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes in dismay and exclaimed, "How can the king of Syria expect me to cure this man? Does he think that I am God, with the power of life and death? It's plain that he is trying to start a quarrel with me!"
⁸When the prophet Elisha heard what had happened, he sent word to the king: "Why are you so upset? Send the man to me, and I'll show him that there is a prophet in Israel!"
⁹So Naaman went with his horses and chariot and stopped at the entrance to Elisha's house. ¹⁰Elisha sent a servant out to tell him to go and wash himself seven times in the Jordan River, and he would be completely cured of his disease. ¹¹But Naaman left in a rage, saying, "I thought that he would at least come out to me, pray to the LORD his God, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and cure me! ¹²Besides, aren't the rivers Abana and Pharpar, back in Damascus, better than any river in Israel? I could have washed in them and been cured!"
¹³His servants went up to him and said, "Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. Now why can't you just wash yourself, as he said, and be cured?" ¹⁴So Naaman went down to the Jordan, dipped himself in it seven times, as Elisha had instructed, and he was completely cured. His flesh became firm and healthy like that of a child. ¹⁵He returned to Elisha with all his men and said, "Now I know that there is no god but the God of Israel; so please, sir, accept a gift from me."
¹⁶Elisha answered, "By the living LORD, whom I serve, I swear that I will not accept a gift."
Naaman insisted that he accept it, but he would not. ¹⁷So Naaman said, "If you won't accept my gift, then let me have two mule-loads of earth to take home with me, because from now on I will not offer sacrifices or burnt offerings to any god except the LORD. ¹⁸So I hope that the LORD will forgive me when I accompany my king to the temple of Rimmon, the god of Syria, and worship him. Surely the LORD will forgive me!"
¹⁹"Go in peace," Elisha said. And Naaman left.
He had gone only a short distance, ²⁰when Elisha's servant Gehazi said to himself, "My master has let Naaman get away without paying a thing! He should have accepted what that Syrian offered him. By the living LORD I will run after him and get something from him." ²¹So he set off after Naaman. When Naaman saw a man running after him, he got down from his chariot to meet him, and asked, "Is something wrong?"
²²"No," Gehazi answered. "But my master sent me to tell you that just now two members of the group of prophets in the hill country of Ephraim arrived, and he would like you to give them three thousand pieces of silver and two changes of fine clothes."
²³"Please take six thousand pieces of silver," Naaman replied. He insisted on it, tied up the silver in two bags, gave them and two changes of fine clothes to two of his servants, and sent them on ahead of Gehazi. ²⁴When they reached the hill where Elisha lived, Gehazi took the two bags and carried them into the house. Then he sent Naaman's servants back. ²⁵He went back into the house, and Elisha asked him, "Where have you been?"
"Oh, nowhere, sir," he answered.
²⁶But Elisha said, "Wasn't I there in spirit when the man got out of his chariot to meet you? This is no time to accept money and clothes, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and cattle, or servants! ²⁷And now Naaman's disease will come upon you, and you and your descendants will have it forever!"
When Gehazi left, he had the disease--his skin was as white as snow.

The Book of
OBADIAH

¹This is the prophecy of Obadiah--what the Sovereign LORD said about the nation of Edom.

The LORD Will Punish Edom

The LORD has sent his messenger to the nations,
and we have heard his message:
"Get ready! Let us go to war against Edom!"
²The LORD says to Edom,
"I will make you weak;
everyone will despise you.
³Your pride has deceived you.
Your capital is a fortress of solid rock;
your home is high in the mountains,
and so you say to yourself,
'Who can ever pull me down?'
⁴Even though you make your home
as high as an eagle's nest,
so that it seems to be among the stars,
yet I will pull you down.

⁵"When thieves come at night,
they take only what they want.
When people gather grapes,
they always leave a few.
But your enemies have wiped you out completely.
⁶Descendants of Esau, your treasures have been looted.
⁷Your allies have deceived you;
they have driven you from your country.
People who were at peace with you have now conquered you.
Those friends who ate with you have laid a trap for you;
they say of you, 'Where is all that cleverness he had?'

⁸"On the day I punish Edom,
I will destroy their clever men
and wipe out all their wisdom.
⁹The fighting men of Teman will be terrified,
and every soldier in Edom will be killed.

Reasons for Edom's Punishment

¹⁰"Because you robbed and killed
your relatives, the descendants of Jacob,
you will be destroyed and dishonored forever.
¹¹You stood aside on that day
when enemies broke down their gates.
You were as bad as those strangers
who carried off Jerusalem's wealth
and divided it among themselves.
¹²You should not have gloated
over the misfortune of your relatives in Judah.
You should not have been glad
on the day of their ruin.
You should not have laughed at them
in their distress.
¹³You should not have entered the city of my people
to gloat over their suffering
and to seize their riches
on the day of their disaster.
¹⁴You should not have stood at the crossroads
to catch those trying to escape.
You should not have handed them over to the enemy
on the day of their distress.

God Will Judge the Nations

¹⁵"The day is near when I, the LORD,
will judge all nations.
Edom, what you have done
will be done to you.
You will get back what you have given.
¹⁶My people have drunk a bitter cup of punishment
on my sacred hill.
But all the surrounding nations will drink
a still more bitter cup of punishment;
they will drink it all and vanish away.

The Victory of Israel

¹⁷"But on Mount Zion some will escape,
and it will be a sacred place.
The people of Jacob will possess
the land that is theirs by right.
¹⁸The people of Jacob and of Joseph will be like fire;
they will destroy the people of Esau
as fire burns stubble.
No descendant of Esau will survive.
I, the LORD, have spoken.

¹⁹"People from southern Judah will occupy Edom;
those from the western foothills will capture Philistia.
Israelites will possess the territory of Ephraim and Samaria;
the people of Benjamin will take Gilead.
²⁰The army of exiles from northern Israel
will return and conquer Phoenicia as far north as Zarephath.
The exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sardis
will capture the towns of southern Judah.
²¹The victorious men of Jerusalem
will attack Edom and rule over it.
And the LORD himself will be king."