Little Foxes?

When I stumble in my faith, I too easily blame externals, but God tells me externals are not the issue. The real problem is within me. He points to three of them this morning, beginning with a reminder that all three are matters of the heart. He uses two verses for this reminder. The first points out that everything about me comes from within. Jesus lives in my heart because of salvation’s promise, but my old nature, dead to God but still able to produce sin is there also. I’m to guard my heart with diligence so that the activities of life come from Christ and not that sinful spirit.

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

The other verse is from a passage that talks about being unfaithful in marriage, but the principle applies to all sorts of things, particularly to being faithful to God. He gave Himself to me, and I belong to Him. Sin has repercussions, so He says “Guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.” (Malachi 2:16) 

Out of this flows another reason I need to guard my heart. It is because I can easily slide into a contempt for truth and a confidence in myself rather than God. Oswald Chambers says, “The temper of mind is tremendous in its effects; it is the enemy that penetrates right into the soul and distracts the mind from God. There are certain tempers of mind in which we never dare indulge; if we do, we find they have distracted us from faith in God, and until we get back to the quiet mood before God, our faith in Him is nil, and our confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity is the thing that rules.”

He is right. Not only that, after being distracted and my faith has faltered, I am really fed up with my foolishness. For this, Chambers points to Psalm 123:3, “Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt.”

First, allowing my rule instead of God easily begins with something small, even “the cares of this world.” God says this might not be big things, but small distractions that can mar the way I live. This verse came to mind, a line of a lover concerned that something could destroy the beauty of his relationship with the one he loved. He used an analogy as a way to say that both of them needed to guard against those little things . . . 

Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.” (Song of Solomon 2:15)

Those little foxes point to anything that can produce wrong attitudes, even simple things that have extraordinary power to distract attention from my beloved God and from His Word. As Jesus said, when the word is sown into a distracted heart, I might hear it, “but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” (Matthew 13:22) Guarding my heart means refusing to be swamped with the cares of this life. He says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow . . . .” (Matthew 6:33–34) 

Another thing that can distract me is the desire for vindication. This is that attitude of mind that insists ‘I must explain myself; I must get people to understand.’ Jesus never explained anything. If people understood, they understood. If not, He left His words and actions to His Father, trusting Him with the responses. Not only that, He knew that truth was not to be given to everyone nor would everyone get it even if they heard it . . . 

But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. (John 2:24–25) and . . .

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:14–16)

The third “distraction” that can trip me up is the gift of discernment. By the Spirit of God, I often discern things like lack of growth or problems in the lives of other Christians. However, if my attitude is wrong, that discernment turns to criticism and blocks my spiritual life and relationship with God. God never gives me discernment so I can criticize others, but so I will pray for them.

Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. (Romans 14:4)

Little foxes? As I look at these three examples: the cares of the world, a desire to be understood, and using discernment to criticize, it seems they are big issues, issues of contempt for the promises of God and lack of any responsibility in being His child. Instead of blaming life and others for my problems, I need to continually look at and guard my own heart.

Priorities

The past two days have left me feeling overtired and subnormal. While prayer has been good, I’ve not been able to complete other things started, or accomplish normal chores. I’ve been busy, but feel like I’ve been spinning my wheels and getting nowhere. 

Today’s devotional reading at first seemed pointless, but as I look at it and various comments about it, God has something to say to my situation. The scene is a conversation between two lovers. The man, likely Solomon, is asking his beloved to go with him, perhaps a walk in the garden. He praises her virtues and speaks loving words to her. Then one of them, it is not clear who, says this strange line,

Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom. (Song of Solomon 2:15)

Foxes or jackals often came into the vineyards and ate the grapes. In this case, the vines were in bloom only, but the inference is to make sure the foxes are gone before the grapes appear. Either she is asking him to do it for them both, or he is asking her to do it since this may have been her responsibility prior to their relationship.

This verse has many interpretations. Is this literal, perhaps a suggestion that since she had failed somehow before (1:6), she needed to be more zealous to take care of their vineyards? Or is it less literal and more about tending to any subtle sins that might spoil their blossoming relationship?

From the latter idea, several commentaries suggest that readers apply this to their own spiritual lives. That is, take care of the small things that destroy the work of God in our lives. This could be the first thoughts of actual sin, or any hindrances that keep us from doing what is right. It could refer to any little thing that ruins our judgment, muddies our conscience, perplexes our thinking or discourages our inclination to virtue.

Some theologians suggest these little foxes could also be whispers of false teaching that obstruct the progress of the gospel. These also must be tamed, restrained, or destroyed before they ruin our witness.

I can think of all sorts of examples in both these interpretations. In personal relationships, any problems can become wedges if not addressed. A small doubt leads to mistrust and that can separate two people. A small disagreement can grow into a large feud. Lack of forgiveness can become bitterness and turn our focus from God to self-pity. Attraction to worldly pleasures can start small and eventually turn Christian workers from their primary purpose to share Christ and glorify God.

One writer thinks that despite the endless variety of interpretations, this verse does not represent anything. Instead, this man is inviting the woman to join in some sort of childlike play that young lovers often do. Yet even that has application for those who work all the time and never take a rest from their labors. As another writer says, this could even be her excuse for not going with her young lover —she has work to do in the vineyard. 

This “non-interpretation” suggests to me that I’ve made my to-do list more important than it should be. At my age, and with this heart problem, I’ve been somewhat driven to finish things and get my half-done projects off the table. They have lined up and backed up, and are getting too heavy on my mind. I sense from these verses that my ambitions have become more than little foxes and that the Lord is inviting me to do something different. It could be spending more time with Him or chilling out with family and friends. In either case, I need to deal with those foxes.

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Lord, I’m from a family that values accomplishment. I know that there is nothing wrong with being busy or getting things done — unless it interferes with the ripening of the spiritual fruit You desire in my life. Work, work, work can keep me from listening to You, from deepening relationships with others, and from getting the rest that my body needs. I need to find a picture of some little foxes and attach it to my chore list as a reminder to not let those things happen. I need to remember that putting a check in all those little boxes is not nearly as important as going for a walk in the garden with You.

Predators that spoil the vines

Fatigue is my catchword excuse for it, but it really is not fatigue. It is that sense of tiredness that comes with clutter. This isn’t the clutter of unwashed dishes and stuff that needs to be put where it belongs, although that can create a similar feeling. Instead, it is the clutter of small sins that are indulged but not confessed. Like unrelated knickknacks, they become scattered in the soul and eventually become heavy. I feel like my life needs a load lifted, but sleep will not do it.

Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom. (Song of Solomon 2:15)

Christians have used this verse about little foxes to describe things like passing on one tidbit of gossip, blurting out one unkind word, allowing just a little selfish indulgence, fudging the truth when it didn’t seem to matter much. After a few hours or a few days of this, the little foxes have spoiled the vineyards and no spiritual fruit is produced.

Sometimes I feel like I want to sleep all day because of fatigue, but need to discern whether or not this problem is actually those little foxes. Like any predator, they need to be identified, trapped and put out of my life.

How do they get past my defenses and hatred of sin in the first place? For the most part, at the time each doesn’t seem to be a big deal, but Jesus didn’t die for small reasons. In Him, there are no shades of sin. They either exist or do not. He allows that sense of heaviness and clutter to exist. Guilt, like pain, signals that something is wrong and needs attention. This is the real name for that cluttered feeling.

The good news is that He who convicts of sin also provides the cure for it. He died to pay its penalty. He lives to give us victory. In Him there is both forgiveness and cleansing. He can and often does de-clutter my life. He also gives the necessary discipline to prevent getting caught up in sin, giving me the safe guards to keep out the foxes. This discipline, like any other, requires effort on my part, first in thinking rightly about who I am and what I have in Jesus Christ. 

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:6–11)

Spurgeon asks Christians why we mess with it; hasn’t it cost enough already? Why would a burned child play with fire, or someone who had already been caught in the jaws of lion step again into its den? Have we not experienced Satan’s bite without playing around in his realm?

Sin is a big disappointment. At first, it seems either harmless or a promise of satisfaction, but this is never true. If it did, we would go back and wear its chains again, but no genuine Christian wants to do that. We have Christ’s mind and His hatred of sin.

Not only that, sin is never cheap. If it doesn’t land me in serious trouble in a real and physical way, it puts my soul in distress and makes me feel tired of life. I could say big sins do the former, and little sins do the latter, but in God’s evaluation of sin, there is no difference. Foxes are foxes, no matter how they are measured.

For those without Christ and those who know Him, the initial step to freedom from guilt and sin is the same. 1 John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

For Christians, that cleansed and clutter-free life also depends on learning to consider myself dead to sin and alive to God. A dead person responds to no stimulus, no temptation. Being dead to sin puts those little foxes outside the fence. Being alive to God also robs the foxes of their allure.

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Lord, sometimes You overlook my little foxes until I wind up with an entire “leash” or “skulk” of them (words for a group of foxes). These are vivid and appropriate words to also describe the sin with which the Bible associates little foxes. I don’t want to be led astray on a leash of sin regardless of its size, nor do I want to skulk around trying to pretend that all is okay and that I’ve never done anything wrong. I want the vineyard of my life to blossom and produce the fruits of righteousness and praise. As I spend time in prayer this morning, reveal each fox that I might confess it — and that You might put it out of my life.

(Photo credit)