Little Foxes

"Twenty eight, twenty nine... " the owner said. "Where's chicken number thirty? Another one's missing! What's taking my chickens?"

A week later, lots of white feathers were on the lawn. It was evidence of a struggle between another missing rooster and some kind of animal. Away from the hen house and down in the gully were more feathers, evidence that the rooster wasn't killed immediately and had continued to struggle before being killed. Unfortunately, the rain had washed away the tracks of the aggressor. What kind of animal was stealing and killing the chickens? Was it the neighbor's dog? A coyote? A fox? A bobcat? A bear? There was no way to tell. The chicken owner started to keep a sharp eye out for the culprit, whatever it was. He kept his rifle at hand.

It was a week later. The owner saw a red fox trotting up the gully heading straight for the hen house. Now the owner knew what he was dealing with. However, the fox spooked and ran off before the owner could get his rifle. None the less, now, the owner knew what he had to do to protect his flock. He couldn't be there 24 hours a day with his rifle to protect them, so he did the next best thing. Within hours, he had driven dozens of iron stakes into the ground and surrounded the hen house and field with 400 feet of mesh fence pulled down tight against the earth. Now his treasure was safe from the fox.

Foxes eat not only meat, but also grass and fruit. The Bible has an interesting verse about foxes. It's found in Song of Solomon. In that passage a lover is talking to his beloved. Using the metaphor of little foxes, the lover says that it's vitally important for the two of them to protect their mutual relationship from things that will damage it. In a poetic way, the lover says that his beloved must be especially vigilant to keep their budding relationship intact. He gives her a warning that needed to be heeded. He says to his beloved, "Let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom." Song of Solomon 2:14b, 15

What does this mean, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards? I think it means the little cutting remarks that a wife makes about her husband in his presence or when she is with her girl friends. I hear women belittle their husbands all the time, at places where I have worked and at places where I socialize with other women. I've heard church women put down their husbands just as readily as women outside the church. I wonder how a man must feel to know that the woman whose voice is sweet to him and whose face is lovely to him (that's why he married her!) is habitually bad mouthing him, allowing little foxes of contempt to destroy what is precious in their relationship.

The Bible instructs us wives how to treat our husbands. "An excellent wife who can find?...The heart of her husband trusts in her... She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. Proverbs 31:10-12 (parts) A major way a woman does good to her husband is to praise him, rather than to bring shame upon him with her words. Women who continue to belittle their husbands are as negligent as a chicken owner who would build no fence, but instead leave his flock to the mercy of a hungry fox.