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.

Justice: revenge or vindication?

In our city, a man was angry with his wife, jumped in his car and instead of putting it in reverse, he drove it into the outdoor patio of a restaurant and killed a child. Understandably, the child’s family are crying for justice. They want retribution for their enormous loss with some sort of adequate punishment for this careless man.

Justice is a huge theme in the Word of God. From the blood of Abel in Genesis through each phase of Israel’s history, He deals with those who oppose righteousness. He hears the cries of the downtrodden also, even to the end of Scripture and this world when the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne cry out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:9–10) Not only is God just, He expects us to be the same.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

We tend to think of justice as a sort of vengeance, getting or making things even. That is, you steal my sheep and I must give it back, plus one of mine. But the justice of God adds something unexpected. For those who become His people by faith, His justice includes vindication and redemption.

Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider Your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of Your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. Yet He saved them for His name’s sake, that He might make known His mighty power. He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and He led them through the deep as through a desert. So He saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy. (Psalm 106:7–10)

The justice of God might be retributive, for we are all sinners and deserve it. But His justice can be vindictive to those who are objects of mercy in Christ Jesus. Instead of punishing us, He saves and delivers us because Jesus bore our full penalty, satisfying the justice of God.

… For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:22–26)

God has every right to send us all as far from Him as He can, even to the pit of hell. We break His commands and shake our fists in His face. Those whose hearts have become distressed about sin may seek salvation on the basis of God’ mercy, yet that would leave justice unsatisfied.

Instead, God in great grace includes retribution for us in the offer of faith in Jesus Christ. This faith includes recognition that full justice has been satisfied at Calvary. Jesus took our punishment for sin. Those who seek forgiveness and salvation realize that in Christ, justice has a far more glorious satisfaction than ever it will have in the damnation of sinners. In punishing sin in Christ, God’s vindictive justice is cleared and vindicated. When He pardons sin through Christ, he is also merciful as well as just.

In the losses of life, I could hang on to vengeance, demand justice, cry for punishment against those who take from me. God could have done the same, but instead sent Jesus to take all that upon Himself. The laws of my country might demand retribution, and so they should. However, for me personally, and because I am a child of faith, I recognize that the price for my sins and any sins against me has already been paid.