Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Judges chapter 12, verse 4.

Then Jephtha gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim.

And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim because they said,

you are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim because they said you are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites,

in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.

I read this verse because it's a concise summary of civil war among God's people.

And this point in the book of judges,

God's people are turning against each other

and are fighting against each other

in ways that are obviously destructive for them

and ultimately dishonoring, displeasing to God.

And we see this picture in judges, and then we read the rest of the Bible, and we see this

tendency over and over and over again. And it's all over the New Testament Church.

Even as I've been preaching through First Corinthians, I've just been reminded of divisions

among God's people and tendencies among God's people to turn against one another.

I think about Jesus' prayer for us as God's people.

Before he went to the cross,

like this is the one thing he was praying for us

as he transitions in John 17 to praying for those who would believe in him through the witness

of his original disciples. And he prays that we would be one, just as he and the Father are one.

And so it's pretty clear what God desires for us as his people and it's also pretty clear

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