FOXES

Foxes are members of the dog family (Canidae) and, if you have seen one, you can mistake one for a dog. However, they are not domesticated, and you wouldn’t want one sleeping on your couch.

There are many different kinds, such as Red, Gray, Fennec, Artic, Tibetan, Corsac, Sechuran, and so on. You can see pictures of them if you google “kinds of foxes.”

Foxes are mentioned frequently in the Bible. In Judges 15.4, Samson uses foxes in his vengeance against the Philistines. He caught 300 foxes, tied their tails together, two at a time, and then set their tails on fire. Then he let them run wild in the wheat fields and olive orchards to destroy them. This happened because Samson’s father-in-law had given Samson’s wife to someone else. His “little foxes” became little torches.

In the Song of Solomon 2.15, it is the little foxes that harm the vineyards, and in this story, they symbolize dangers to the love and intimacy of a bride and bridegroom. It is the “little things” that can foster or ruin a relationship. In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis reminds us of some of the little things Satan uses to annoy us and make us anemic Christians. It is the “little things,” little foxes of jealousy and pride that spoil the vines of love.

Jesus called Herod a fox to depict his cunningness and that he was really a desperate, small creature and not a particularly great man. Being a fox was not a compliment and Herod would not have liked it. He thought he was majestic and deserved honor.

You may have met someone who was “sly as a fox,” meaning very clever or shrewd, Herod’s wife was not sly about wanting John the Baptist’s head on a platter. She was more like a wild painted dog of Africa than a sly fox.

Foxes like to dig, and they live in underground burrows or dens, although they also live above the ground in sheltered spots. Beginning in WWI fox holes were used to protect soldiers and one figures graphically into a story my wife’s father told.

Albert Barnett, father of my wife, lied about his age and enlisted in the Canadian army during WWI. At the age of 16, he found himself on the front lines in France and was wounded. He crawled into a foxhole and a young man was also there. He was the son of a Methodist minister, and he had a New Testament and read from it to Joice’s dad, who accepted Christ into his life—a real foxhole conversion.

But the story is not over. The young man went out to get help for Joice’s dad and he was blown up instead. Imagine the impact on her dad!

Many years later, her dad went on a pilgrimage with other Canadian veterans to the war fields and cemeteries in France. He found the grave and tombstone of the young man who had led him to the Lord, and he had a picture taken standing by the grave and reading the same passage from the New Testament that he had heard when he made his decision to follow Christ. He later became very active in the Canadian servicemen’s activities and told his story all around Canada and Michigan. A foxhole testimony, but not with any “little foxes” to spoil it.

I read the saying, “A fox is a wolf who sends flowers,” which suggests someone who is duplicitous, in plain words tricky and deceitful. They may appear friendly but are ready to have a bite out of grandma.

There can also be a “fox guarding the henhouse,” meaning that someone unsuitable is in a position of trust that is unwarranted, perhaps like a felon driving the school bus or an alcoholic serving (real) wine in communion. Some equivalents are: in Finnish “the male goat guarding the cabbage patch”; in French, “to let the wolf get in the sheepfold”; and in Dutch one version is “tying the cat to the bacon.”

When a teacher of the Law said he was ready to follow Jesus anywhere, Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lie down and rest” (Matthew 8.20). He was well aware of the animals and their habits.

On a lighter note, some people can do the foxtrot, a dance that consists of “long, continuous movements,” and is best not tried by old people like me.

And, to conclude, if you have used the military phonetic alphabet (like we did for short-wave communication in Papua New Guinea) you will know that F stands for “foxtrot.”

Over and out.