The Little Foxes

Henry Madaga
Apr 4, 2024
5 min read

The Tired, Thirsty, and Hungry Fox

Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyard, for our vineyards are in blossom

Songs of Solomon 2:15

Once upon a time, when the sun had shone in its strength for days without end, and the rain had not softened the ground for months, so that a devastating famine had taken hold, a tired, thirsty, and hungry fox, Foxy was his name, was walking around, desperately hoping to find something to eat. For two weeks now, Foxy had had nothing to eat. In the sky a crow, Crowy was her name, with a generous and deliciously looking slice of meat in her beak, was flying, trying to find a tree to perch on. For Crowy, food had been hard to come by as well, and she had just snatched the slice of meat from a goat herder in the fields. Foxy, tired, thirsty and hungry, decided to rest under a tree. So it happened that Crowy perched on one of the branches of this very tree, under which Foxy was sitting, tired, thirsty and hungry. The movement of the branches roused Foxy. He looked up and saw Crowy, in her beak she had a delicious slice of meat. Until then, foxes and crows had never spoken to each other. Foxy knew this was his only chance.

“Wow!” He said. “What a beautiful bird! You have to be the prettiest bird of all your kind.”

He went on to praise the color of Crowy’s feathers even though they were black. He praised her beak and said she had beautiful eyes. Crowy’s heart swelled with pride, she felt as though someone was finally interested in her, for until then, no one had ever actually paid attention to her.

“I wonder how sweet your voice is,” continued Foxy, “will you sing for me, please?” Crowy was excited, she was excited that the fox had said her voice was sweet, forgetting that she had the most annoying caw and made the most disturbing voice among all birds. Here was somebody who thought it to be beautiful. Crowy did not know that the fox was only tired, thirsty and hungry. Crowy gathered air in her lungs, she then opened her beaks wide to give out the most beautiful tune in the world. Just when she opened her beak, the delicious slice of meat fell to the ground. Foxy quickly dashed for it, and immediately ran off. Crowy was surprised to see Foxy running, then she remembered her slice of meat. She would have to sleep hungry today, again.

While we are often drawn to think of theft, murder, or fornication when we talk about sin, most of us, however, have had our hearts ensnared by what we would probably never have regarded to be sin had we not put on the lenses of scriptures. Foxes might be the most cunning creatures on earth, or we would never have said, as cunning as a fox. And after we have established how cunning foxes are, we see them addressed in Scriptures in this specific instance, as little. Here we have, cunning little animals, who ruin the vineyard that is just in bloom. To say they are cunning, is to emphasize that they are deceiving and manipulative. It may be precisely because they are little that they cause the greatest mischief, as no one would regard them seriously.

The term little foxes, therefore, consists not of the great sins of heresy and apostasy, or even fornication and adultery, but the little items in our lives that shift our attention from God to themselves. This may be in our normal routine, reading, chatting with friends, or even watching certain programs. It is the innocence of these things that provides a leeway into our hearts, and cultivates a coldness of God in our spirits. The fact that we are not hungry for God, as John Piper would say in the preface of his book Hunger for God, is not that God is unsavory, but that our hunger is already catered for by many other lesser things, we are stuffed already as it were.

The Bible says in James that the Lord tempts no one, but all of us are tempted when we are drawn by our own desires. We would say sin is born of a ‘little’ mistake carelessly regarded. The little foxes creep in insensibly and ruin our grapes that are tender, and our vineyards that are in blossom.

In John Owen’s approach to sin, temptation and the Christian life, he clarifies that we all have peculiar lusts due to our particular constitutions, education or prejudices. Satan tends to attack us according to our particular personalities, moving against a confident person more differently than an anxious one, but tempting both nonetheless. For example, the rich man may become proud of all that he has, thinking that he is full and in need of nothing. Even though this is a thought that may never come out loudly, it is one he harbors in his heart and that reflects itself in how he lives his life. The poor man may not have cause to be proud, but instead he may become embittered by his many misfortunes and unenviable circumstances. He may secretly distrust God in his heart, and cease to have faith in God’s assurances. These men have sinned, and we would not be wrong to say they have been tempted differently. We must learn our dispositions, for in so doing we are more prepared to avoid stealthy arrows directed at us. To Owen, we must be killing the little foxes, or they will be killing us. We must catch the foxes, or they will ruin our vineyards that are just in blossom. There could be habits we ascribe to our nature and personalities, yet it’s these very habits that create a fertile ground for error and sin.

Many of us who believe we stand should look carefully lest we fall. Our hearts can often be nagged by little things, and as our hearts happen to be the greatest deceivers, we find ourselves in messes that it is often impossible to wriggle ourselves out of. We are to guard our hearts, with all vigilance, for from them flows the springs of Life. To be able to enjoy God and worship him, there has to be a degree of need and hunger in our hearts that draws us to seek him. There are so many things in the world that rid us of this hunger and need for God, so that our fellowship with God becomes to us nothing more than just another task we need to get out of the way. The time we give to God in such a constitution of mind always seems unnecessary and if we are busy pursuing our goals, it often feels like a distraction and a waste of time. These things are the little foxes that spoil our vineyard of fellowship and love.

Catch the little foxes. Matthew Henry in his commentary declares this to be a charge that particular believers mortify their own corruptions, their sinful appetites and passions that work to destroy grace and comfort, quashing good emotions and crushing good beginnings, hence preventing their coming to perfection. The little foxes are to be seized, the first risings of sin… In Hebrews the instruction is, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight that clings close, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus as the pioneer and the sustainer of our faith.

Catch us the foxes

Little foxes that destroy good beginnings

Little foxes that thwart good resolves

Little they are, so we may entertain them,

Pay no attention to them, Or

Doubt their abilities to mess up our lives.

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