Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, Our vineyards that are in bloom.
(Songs of Solomon 2:15)
One of the mysteries of life is how little things gradually eat up mighty things until they crumble. However, this doesn’t just happen in one day but is a gradual process. A good example are the activities of carpenter ants.
Botanists say that exploiting an existing problem is one of the characteristics of a carpenter ant. They attack dead limbs and stumps of trees until they decay. The ants then nest in the limbs and sections of the decayed tree.
As Christians What lesson can we learn from this? Like the carpenter ants temptations strike during our unguarded hours and in our weak spots.
Living the Christian life is not a bed of roses but it comes with lots of trials and temptations occasionally placed in our path by the devil to smear our relationship with God. That’s why we are constantly admonished to watch and pray.
The Bible calls some of our overlooked negative attitudes the Little Foxes. Aside from the example of the carpenter ants the Bible uses the metaphor of the fox for destruction. These little animals are destructive even though small in size. In this context, little foxes represent sins and habits that we allow to fester unchecked: probably because we do not deem them important enough to affect our relationship with God.
When left unchecked these little habits and sins have wreaked havoc on people’s lives and their relationship with God.
A child of God may not commit adultery, be a drunkard, or do any of the other “big and loud” sinful acts but could be entangled with the little sins of evil thoughts, worrying, selfishness, vanities, impatience, laziness, ungrateful attitudes, pride and worldly conversations that do not make him a worthy ambassador of Jesus Christ.
The little foxes include sins such as disobedience to the non-salient instructions of God even as we obey God in salient matters which are visible to all. In this context, we shall take a look at King Solomon to examine the dangers of the little foxes.
While Solomon loved God at the beginning of his reign and was blessed immensely, however, his nonchalant attitude towards non-salient instructions of God, the little foxes, began to eat into his devotion gradually until it eventually wreaked havoc on his relationship with his God.
His poor attitude to the instructions of God not to buy horses from Egypt, a nation that once kept Israel in bondage as slaves violated God’s command In Deuteronomy 17:16-17. Adding to the matter of trade was his decision to also take a wife from Egypt.
Despite the divine blessing upon his life, Solomon’s own little fox was his inability to break free from his attraction to Egypt. In our contemporary context as Christians, Egypt represents the world and our sinful past.
Now as we reflect upon our own lives, we should ask ourselves about the little foxes that we are pampering and making excuses for. We should begin to ask ourselves hard questions before the foxes take root and become stumbling blocks in our relationship with God.
Maybe they have even become stumbling blocks already, nevertheless, we should ask the Holy Spirit to help us overcome these sins.
Many like Solomon have drifted into worldliness courtesy of the little foxes of lack of prayerful lives, little attention to the word of God, and little desire to crucify their flesh as it relates to their desire for worldly pleasure.
It is our Christian duty to identify the little foxes and fight them before they wreak havoc on our relationship with God. Nothing is more important for the Christian at this precarious moment than to fully turn to God with all his heart- these are the perilous times prophesied in the Bible.
This is the time to take heart to the word of God and lay hold on his fervent mercy that says:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Reading
John 15:1-8
