Foxes
In an article titled “Samson” (Beauties of the Truth, May, 1997), we observed that the 300 foxes Samson set running through the fields of the Philistines, tails ablaze with torches, represented God’s burning judgments against the Roman power (compare Revelation 8:8) . This is consistent with Luke 13:32 which records Jesus’ designation of Herod, the ruler appointed by Rome, as “that fox.”
Recently two other instances of this symbol have come to our attention which support the connection of “fox” with Rome. One of these appears in Psalms 63. It is a psalm of David, and like others of his psalms refers not only to David’s personal distresses, but prophetically to those of Christ. When it speaks of his enemies, verses 9 and 10 say: “But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.” Indeed, the nation of Israel who delivered Jesus over for death did fall by the sword, and were a prey for Rome, “a portion for foxes.”
The other is a familiar text from Song of Solomon 2:15, “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes:’ The lovely manna comment of July 30 is introduced by this text, exhorting us to carefulness respecting “little violations” which can eat away at our resolve, and undermine victories in greater things.
The text also has a meaning in its prophetic context which is consistent with the other fox texts mentioned above. The fuller narrative is Song of Solomon 2:8-17, and it describes the harvest of the Gospel Age, beginning with the return of Christ to take away his beloved church to be with him.
“The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice [of prophesied events]. My beloved spake, and said unto me, `Rise up, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle[dove] is heard in our land. [It is springtime, the harvest time.] “The fig tree [Israel] putteth forth her green figs, and the vines [the church] with the tender grapes give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away” (verses 8-13).
The harvest is a time for gathering home our Lord’s bride, his loved one, and a time of preparing the new agencies of blessing for the kingdom. But it is also a time of removing the old influences, and in this context verse 15 says “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes:”
The word “take” does not mean to take as an example, to consider, but rather to catch or trap, to remove this influence, so destructive of the vine. We suggest the foxes represent the powers which have done damage to the vine for so long, the governments of Christendom who, as the agent of the false church, have afflicted and persecuted the true vine. Those governments are elsewhere represented as the ten toes of Daniel’s image, and the ten horns on Daniel’s fourth beast, which in both cases are the remnants of the Roman Empire, sometimes termed the “Holy Roman Empire.”
The harvest is a time of judgment, when these destructive agents are to be eliminated.
Roman Imperial Ensign of the Dragon
It is interesting to note that an early symbol of Rome, the Roman Imperial Ensign of the Dragon, was a peculiar blend of a snake-like body with a canine head. Perhaps this is the reason the scriptures use “fox” as an emblem of the Roman power.
– David Rice