"The parallelism shows us that his servants are those that trust in him. How can a man enter upon this service without trusting in him?
A man that would serve God, has no longer sword or spear to trust in; riches or luck or cunning; rank or favor; the multitude or the prince; a fortress or a cavern; learning or genius or eloquence; nothing in fact remains for him to trust in but God.
The servant is not greater than his master; he partakes with his master the hostility of the world; and he has naught to look to but the promise of his master. Desolation seems to stare him in the face; but he is assured that none of them that trust in the Lord shall be desolate."
— George Bowen (1816–1888) · The White Sadhu of Bombay✦ Nothing Remains but God
Bowen strips away every human resource one by one — military power, wealth, intelligence, social position, even learning and eloquence — until the servant stands with nothing but the promise of the Master. Servant and truster are the same person. You cannot serve without trusting, because the one who serves has abandoned every other source of security. Guyon's abandonment made practical.
"Desolation seemed to frown upon the Pilgrim Fathers as they forsook the shores of the old world and went forth to a land which they knew to be not at all flowing with milk and honey, rather indeed inhospitable, bleak and savage.
Innumerable dangers beset those infant colonies; but they found the grace of the Lord corresponding with the word of the Lord. Instead of being outlaws they became lawgivers; instead of being vilified as opposers of the faith, they became celebrated as expounders of the faith; and the howling wilderness became as the garden of the Lord around them."
— George Bowen (1816–1888)"They found the grace of the Lord corresponding with the word of the Lord."
— George Bowen · The promise matched the provision. The wilderness became a garden.They did not leave for a better country by earthly measure. They left for a harder one. And the grace corresponded with the word. The promise matched the provision. Outlaws became lawgivers. The howling wilderness became the garden of the Lord.
"But sometimes the most bitter experience of desolation is in the crowded walks of men; sometimes in the bosom of a large family. Nothing is more desolating than to be closely surrounded on every side by those who are called friends, kinsfolk, but who have no manner of sympathy with the ruling sentiment of our heart.
But often has such a soul turned to God and found it possible to obtain a triumph over its desolation. The life of God perfected in that soul, has sent forth streams into the uncongenial elements around, and so vindicated itself by celestial love and patience that they too have been led to drink and live.
How blessed a thing was it that that soul could not escape in the day of its weariness."
— George Bowen (1816–1888)✦ The Blessing of Not Escaping
The inability to escape was the blessing. If the soul had fled, the streams would never have flowed into the place that needed them most. The life of God perfected in that soul became a fountain — Proverbs 10:11, the fonte de vida — sending streams into the uncongenial elements until even they were led to drink and live.
The solitary place would have been easier. But the crowded place was where the streams were needed. And the soul that could not escape became the instrument of restoration that Amos 5:4 promised — an instrument of life where there was desolation.
"How blessed a thing was it that that soul could not escape in the day of its weariness."
— George Bowen · The inability to escape was the gift"We are in the fiery furnace, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But the Lord is in here with us. Nothing like a fiery furnace to cleanse the soul, to make it pure."
Daniel 3:25 — "I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." Three days of Psalm 34: the broken heart (v.18), the afflictions as property (v.19), and now the promise that none who trust shall be desolate (v.22). The furnace does not destroy the righteous. It burns the ropes that bound them. And the Fourth Man walks in the fire with them.
Nothing but God
Sword, riches, cunning, rank, learning, eloquence — all stripped away. The servant stands with nothing but the promise. Servant and truster are the same word.
The Pilgrim Fathers
They left for a harder land, not an easier one. The grace corresponded with the word. The wilderness became a garden. Outlaws became lawgivers.
The Fiery Furnace
The furnace does not destroy. It cleanses. It burns the ropes that bound. And the Fourth Man walks in the fire. Nothing like a fiery furnace to make the soul pure.