Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Fox

And He said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.’ 

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Lk 13:32.

O Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts. 

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Eze 13:4.

   Catch us the foxes,
   The little foxes that spoil the vines,
   For our vines have tender grapes.
   
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), So 2:15–16.

Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Jdg 15:4.

   Because of Mount Zion which is desolate,
   With foxes walking about on it.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), La 5:18.

Commentary:


Tell that fox (32). The fox was considered a crafty animal, but without the power of the lion. Jesus chose a fitting figure to describe Herod—sly, but secondary in a Roman world.[1]

Go, tell that fox. It is certain, that the person here spoken of is Herod Antipas. Though he had throughout the character of a fox, and was as remarkable for servility as for cunning, I do not think that the term, fox, is intended to refer generally to the cunning of his whole life, but rather to the insidious methods by which he laboured to undermine the doctrine of the Gospel, when he did not venture to attack it openly. Christ tells him that, with all his craftiness, he will gain nothing by his schemes. “Whatever artifices he may devise,” says Christ, “to-day and to-morrow I will discharge the office which God has enjoined upon me; and when I shall have reached the end of my course, I shall then be offered in sacrifice.”[2]



[1] Lewis Foster, Luke: Unlocking the Scriptures for You, Standard Bible Studies (Cincinnati, OH: Standard, 1986), 201.
[2] John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 158.

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