Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
Check out Catching Foxes!
The Questions
1) How do you catch the foxes?
2) How do the little foxes ruin the vineyards?
3) Why does it matter if the vineyards are in bloom or not? Wouldn’t foxes always be a concern?
Song of Solomon 2:!5
Catch the foxes for us—
the little foxes that ruin the vineyards—
for our vineyards are in bloom.
Original Intent
1) How do you catch the foxes?
Writing this study might be my most difficult writing assignment, easily requiring more research than any other. True confession, Song of Solomon isn’t a book I typically spend much time reading, I’m not even sure I had read the entire book until this study! While its imagery is difficult to understand and interpret, my husband says that telling stories allows difficult concepts to be more easily understood because suddenly, they become relatable.
At the moment, I’m on a plane traveling with a friend to a women’s retreat. Using these few uninterrupted hours to bang this out has been my intention for a couple of weeks. The problem is my traveling companion is watching the Chiefs game on her phone and I keep glancing over to check the score. Let’s be honest, watching Patrick Mahomes make amazing plays is more intriguing (and easier!) than working to unpack a hard passage of Scripture! This is when I realized this football game is a fox! Before you can catch a fox, you need to understand they are lurking about. In his song, Solomon uses a relevant example, a story if you will, his readers would understand. Vineyards were prevalent, and readers would understand the care and attention needed to keep these little creatures out of their just-blooming grapes. The comparison between foxes that destroy fruit and distractions that destroy relationships with our spouse and with God would make sense. The best way to catch a fox is first to realize they will come prowling! Next, is to develop safeguards or boundaries to keep them at bay.
2) How do the little foxes ruin the vineyards?
Song of Solomon graphically depicts the love shared between a husband and wife, providing an example for celebrating love within marriage from God’s perspective. Its poetic song would have stuck out to its original audience as missing some then-common components like manipulation, false-god worship and sacrifice, and using sex as a means of achieving something else. Song of Solomon celebrates marriage, celebrates committed love for spouses, and celebrates shared love that stays between a husband and wife. To safeguard such a beautiful rarity, the Lord included some warnings within this amazing love song like this one about catching foxes that ruin the vineyard. While the Song was originally written to celebrate, and give wise counsel for, a marriage relationship, we can make some connections to our relationship with God from the Song. In the Old Testament, God often used marriage to illustrate His divine relationship with His people. Check out the book of Hosea and our accompanying Journey Theme, Bride, for some amazing insights! The foxes in Solomon’s song smell the blossoming grapes and are hungry, they are looking for food. More than likely the foxes aren’t sitting back thinking, “I can’t wait to get in there and destroy that vineyard.” No, they are simply looking to satisfy their hunger. Being aware of sabotages, and setting up safeguards, boundaries, or traps for these sly foxes would have been familiar to the first readers. Given the context, they would have made the correlation between vineyards and their hearts.
3) Why does it matter if the vineyards are in bloom or not? Wouldn’t foxes always be a concern?
When something is in bloom, it’s fresh and new. I would imagine there may be a different scent to fresh blossoming grapes that could be more attractive to hungry little foxes. Vines which are just beginning to grow, are naturally weaker and more susceptible to harm. Foxes would always be a concern, but more attention would be taken at the beginning to ensure vines received the best care in order to develop into maturity. The same reality translates into the dynamics of a new, blossoming relationship as described in Song of Solomon. When love is fresh and new, you are naturally more aware of potential distractions or enemies. This would have been a reminder for both of the lovers to keep their eyes open and hearts focused on developing a strong, enduring love with one another.
Everyday Application
1) How do you catch the foxes?
You should also know this particular football game was originally scheduled for Thursday, but had been postponed to Monday during my flight due to Covid-19. Additionally, our flight was originally scheduled for earlier that Monday, but the airline changed the departure time. All the while, I was completely oblivious to how these small, seemingly insignificant, distractions would eventually keep me from focusing on writing. I was not looking for, or mentally putting up any safeguards, for foxes (distractions) that might creep in, overtaking my study time. Notice how the Scripture says “little” foxes. This is often how distractions work! Little things here and there that, when all added together, are enough to create a big distraction stealing away our focus. Relationships are hard! Not only those with our spouses, but also with God. They both take time, energy, and attention. If we don’t make a conscious effort to be aware of what is happening, and understand that distractions (often seemingly good ones) will come, we will be overrun by little foxes sooner than later. Without preparing for the already-present foxes, we’re already losing the battle to safeguard our precious relationships. 1 Peter 5:8 warns us of this same thing, “Be alert. Your adversary, the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion”. We must pay attention not only to what is happening around us, but also to potential places in which distractions might sneak in and rob us of spending time with God or our loves.
2) How do the little foxes ruin the vineyards?
The easy answer is they ruin the vineyards of our hearts by stealing our focus and attention. Recognizing these “little foxes” is half the battle. We all are well aware of how easy it is to turn our eyes away for just one minute only to realize much later that our relationship is in trouble. This holds true both in our human relationships as well as our relationship with God. Distractions don’t need to be big, or even bad, to do significant damage. When talking about the relationship with our spouse, distractions come in many shapes and sizes like kids, finances, jobs, keeping the house clean and laundry caught up, etc.. All good things, but when we allow them to overtake our focus, our spouse receives the leftovers and the vineyards of our marriage and our hearts are in danger. Our marriages must be a priority for us! This means scheduling date nights, time away, and constant courtship. We must not slip into taking our spouse for granted and assuming we will “catch up” one day when the kids are gone and life is less stressful. That kind of thinking is just plain dangerous! The same is true for our relationship with God. We must prioritize spending time alone with just Him as our number one priority! How easy is it to miss one quiet time and then another, or one Sunday at church, and then struggle to find our way back to a place of depth with God? Sure, life happens, kids get sick, friends need help, groceries need to be purchased, but God is the necessary foundation for keeping our lives on solid footing. God loved us so much He sent Jesus to save us, He will absolutely help you find the time to spend with Him if you ask! Be aware of those foxes, then make a plan to trap them!
3) Why does it matter if the vineyards are in bloom or not? Wouldn’t foxes always be a concern?
Young love is fragile. It’s new, unsure, and hasn’t yet developed strong roots that only grow over time. New marriages haven’t yet endured hard seasons of suffering or learned that true love endures through intense struggle. New couples haven’t yet half-walked, half-dragged one another through those seasons when all we want to do is take a nap! Young lovers can’t imagine anything or anyone becoming an obstacle to their love. Of course, long-term marriages can face abrupt endings and even young love has the potential to grow cold, however, new marriages are indeed particularly fragile. Like new fruit in the vineyard, they deserve special, guarded attention. The same is true for our relationship with God. New Christians are on fire for Jesus, and rightly so. Just like with young love, a new relationship with God is fresh and exciting. You feel more alive than ever and are eager to boldly save the world for Jesus! Life and circumstances, however, don’t always cooperate with our passionate dreams. Trials come, temptations wrap around us, sin entangles us, and we have yet to learn the benefit of daily meeting with the Lord, feasting on His word, and surrendering ourselves to His hand more every single day. Steadfast endurance in our relationship with the Lord God is built one day at a time over the long haul. Watch for the distractions leading you away from what can feel like a tedious, daily investment in your walk with Christ. Flee the temptation to chase the foxes, instead, choose each day to live in hope of all Christ has for us! Revelation 21:5 says, “I am making ALL things new.” If we allow Him to grow the vineyards of our hearts, and we are willing to invest time and energy into our relationships, He is faithful to mature our love into one that endures all things! (1 Corinthians 13:7)
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Missing the connection to our other Journey Study?
Catch up with Catching Foxes!
Digging Deeper is for Everyone!
1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
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