Rev. Don Campbell
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2018: “GO TELL THAT FOX
Some Pharisees came to Jesus pretending to be concerned about his welfare, saying, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you” (Luke 13:32).
Whatever their motive, it certainly was not a noble one. Jesus responded, “Go tell that fox….” In folklore foxes are known for being sly and cunning. They are very much opportunists: “Foxes are omnivorous, opportunistic hunters and will eat essentially anything easily available or small enough to catch. They will eat small mammals and birds as well as large insects, such as grasshoppers, crickets and beetles. In the spring, summer and fall, foxes eat mainly fruit, berries and nuts. In the winter, the lack of available plants forces foxes to switch to meat. In a pinch, a fox will also eat roadkill or dig through trash looking for anything edible” (Douglas Quaid. Fox Hunting and Eating Habits. Sciencing website).
Commenting on this verse, A. T. Robertson wrote: “This epithet for the cunning and cowardice of Herod shows clearly that Jesus understood the real attitude and character of the man who had put John the Baptist to death and evidently wanted to get Jesus into his power in spite of his superstitious fears that he might be John the Baptist redivivus. The message of Jesus means that he is independent of the plots and schemes of both Herod and the Pharisees. The preacher is often put in a tight place by politicians who are quite willing to see him shorn of all real power” (Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament, emphasis added).
One of the surest ways for preachers and those who follow them to lose true spiritual power is to align themselves with politicians. God has always held that alliances with carnal powers constitute spiritual adultery: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’?” (Jam 4:4-5).
