“Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.” (Song of Solomon 2:15)
Song of Solomon is so rich in symbolism, it’s hard to interpret what this verse means at first reading. Taking it literally, the bride is telling the bridegroom that they need to seize the little foxes. Foxes come into the garden and as typical behavior for foxes gnaw at the branches and the roots which cause the vines to wither. The bride tells the bridegroom then in Song of Solomon 2:15 that they need to take care of all the things that would come between them, little things which can grow into big things because it will cause their love to wither.
John the Baptist referred to Jesus as the bridegroom. “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.” (John 3:29) When there arose a question about His disciples fasting Jesus referred to Himself as the bridegroom. “And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.” (Matthew 9:15) Jesus is the bridegroom Who loves the church.
The church or believers are the bride who is like a watered garden. The foxes which are anything from the enemy that comes into the church to destroy it, Jesus will seize and take out of the church. Things that can destroy a church can be gossip, dissention, division, false teachings, false teachers and false prophets. In Revelation, Jesus points out to the churches the things are displeasing to Him and for which He will remove their candlestick, which are His light and His Truth. (Revelation 2:5) The church of Ephesus forgot their first love, Jesus. The church in Smyrna had those who were Anti-Christ from the synagogue of satan. The church of Pergamos held to the doctrine of Balaam and did things for monetary rewards or as Peter called it “wages of unrighteousness.” (2Peter 2:15) The church in Thyatira had fornicators. The church of Sardis had dead works. The church of Philadelphia was weak. The church of Laodicea was lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. (Revelation 2-3:22)
The bridegroom says his bride is a garden and describes her as a garden. “A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.” (Song of Solomon 4:12-15) The Bible speaks of God’s people as a garden. In his prophecy about true and false fasting, Isaiah speaks of God’s people as a garden. (Isaiah 51:1- 10) In verse 10 the Lord’s words are “if” and “then” they would be like a watered garden. “And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” (Isaiah 58:10-11) A watered garden is one which is cared for and protected. If we are like a watered garden we are tended, cared for and protected by the husbandman just as the Shulamite bride’s husband cared for his bride. This is a promise for the people of God. In order to ensure that we understand this is a promise for us as part of the church we must know that those who believe in Jesus and have received Him as Lord and Savior are God’s children. (John 1:12) Together with Israel, we belong to God. “And He is the head of the body, the church: Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.” (Colossians1:18)
Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples.” (John 15:1-8) Again, Jesus refers to believers in God’s Garden as branches attached to Jesus. In His garden we cannot live and bear fruit without being attached and getting our sustenance (spiritual) from Him. The teaching from these Scriptures is extensive. We will only look at them from the view that we, the church is His garden and that we must remain in union with Christ to remain in His garden. We cannot exist without Jesus.
Those little foxes that come into the church fester and destroy the church. The church may think it’s a little thing and not make an effort to correct wrong teaching, division, gossip, wrong doctrine and unrighteousness, but Jesus in Revelation tells the churches to hear what He is saying and to overcome, to repent, to hold fast to the things of God and to strengthen the things that remain. (Revelation 2-3:22) We are the church. When we see beliefs and practices in the church which are contrary to the Gospel, we must confront them in a Scriptural manner sharing our concern to the pastors and leaders using the Word of God as the Truth after much prayer and the help of the Holy Spirit. In this lesson we see how Solomon’s beautiful prose of the love in a marriage prophetically tells of the love between the church and Jesus and how we must remain in union to Jesus to live and to bear fruit.
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