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It is good to know that He Who looks to us to keep the trust committed to us, will
Himself be our constant support. It was this that was the apostle's own stay, for he says
in the context of the passage above:--
"I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which
has been entrusted against that day" (II Tim. 1: 12).
There are suggestions in these passages as to the evils against which the "keeper"
should be on his guard, evils that spring from the same source as that which ruined Adam
in the beginning. In referring to "profane and vain babblings and the antitheses of
knowledge falsely so called", the apostle alludes to that specious system known as
Gnosticism which, under different forms and names, still survives to-day.
"Be not ashamed." "God hath not given us the spirit of cowardice." "Nevertheless I
am not ashamed." -- These words from II Timothy suggest another avenue along which
the sacred trust may be attacked. We are all "keepers"; and have our own particular
gardens "to dress and to keep". Some good thing has been entrusted to us that we are
expected to keep, and not all the refined opposition of "science falsely so called", nor the
more brutal opposition of persecution must cause us to relinquish our post.
The title of "keeper" is employed in Scripture to define the work of a shepherd--
"Abel was a keeper of sheep." In this connection David stands out prominently as
one who was taken from the keeping of sheep to be ruler over the people of Israel
(II Sam. 7: 8). What the keeping of sheep involved, let David tell us:--
"Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a
lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of
his mouth" (I Sam. 17: 34, 35).
Young as he was, David had the true "keeper" spirit, for we read that when Jesse told
him to go and visit his brethren at the battle front, he did not, with youthful forgetfulness,
hurry off unmindful of his responsibility as a shepherd, but "rose up early in the morning,
and left the sheep with a keeper" (I Sam. 17: 20). His eldest brother taunted him in
vain when he said: "With whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?"
(I Sam. 17: 28).
This same spirit is manifested by David on his arrival at the battle-field. He did not
drop his baggage and run off to see what was going on, but first "left his carriage in the
hand of the keeper of the carriage"--or, as Rotherham renders the passage: "Then David
entrusted the provisions that were upon him to the care of the keeper of the stores"
(I Sam. 17: 22).
How many times have we left one part of service unprotected and unprovided for
because of the claims of another. Yet true service is watchful of all responsibilities.