1 Kings 16: Information about more kings of Israel and how each of them did something bad to anger God. Again it’s clear that this is setting up the complete downfall of Israel.
1 Kings 17: Interesting story about Elijah, who I assume is a prophet, and his connection to God. He starts with telling the current king of Israel, Ahab, that there is going to be a drought because God said so. We then see God tell Elijah to go to different places and he will provide for him. Then God helps Elijah bring a boy back to life as a way to demonstrate to his mother that he is a man of God.
1 Kings 18: Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal who was the one Ahab and the people were worshiping. Elijah is able to prove that God is the one they should follow and not Baal. Elijah then kills all of the prophets of Baal.
Galatians 2: In my opinion, this is a very powerful chapter. Paul makes it clear that his mission or his calling was to connect with and preach to the Gentiles. He explains how Peter and the other apostles realized this and supported his efforts as an equal. I really like that Paul questions the other apostles when they insist the Gentiles live like Jews yet they don’t always live by that law. That seems to be pretty brave to me.
I especially liked this verse: “However, we know that a person isn’t made righteous by the worlds of the Law but rather through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. We ourselves believed in Christ Jesus so that we could be made righteous by the faithfulness of Christ, not by the works of the Law–because no one will be made righteous by the works of the Law” (CEB Study Bible; Galatians 2.15; p. 357 NT). To me that’s pretty comforting. It just resonates with me especially as I continue to explore my own faith and beliefs.