1 Maccabees 6:18-27. The king's forces are fighting against the Israelites trying to "harm them and strengthen the Gentiles." So Judas Maccabeus assembles the people to fight back and they have great success. The soldiers and some "ungodly Israelites" go to the king and plead for him to do something about the Israeli rebels before it is too late and he will not be able to stop them.

What struck me in this passage was something those who went to the king (a group that included many Jews) said to him: "We were happy to serve your father, to live by what he said and follow his commands. For this reason the sons of our people besieged the citadel and become hostile to us."

The Jewish soldiers' fellow countrymen are becoming hostile to them because they are serving a false king. When we give ourselves over to earthly power that is in contradiction to God, we are setting ourselves up to have our own people be hostile to us, even our own family members. If they are following God and we are serving another power, they will necessarily be hostile to us.

I think these words should be reflected on by many family members today. If you, and your parents, or your sons and daughters, or your brothers and sisters  have become hostile to each other, ask yourself if you or they have been serving a power antithetical to God? That is the cause of our current disunity, I'm sure of it.