Lamentations 3:52-53 (KJV)
My enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without a cause. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
Misery loves company; we can often better face our trials when we discover biblical characters who encountered similar troubles. Thus Jeremiah, the author of Lamentations, comforted Samuel Rutherford.
Rutherford was a Scottish pastor in the town of Anwoth, who was attacked by the government for not conforming to the Established Church. Found guilty, he was stripped of his pastorate and banished to Aberdeen. His letters back to his flock have become classics. One of them is dated 13 July 1637.
Dearly beloved and longed-for in the Lord, Grace be to you and peace. God knoweth the sad and heavy Sabbaths I have had since I laid down my shepherd’s staves. I have been often saying, as it is written, “My enemies chased me sore like a bird, without cause: they have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.” For next to Christ, I have but one joy, to preach Christ my Lord; and they have violently plucked that away from me. It was to me like the poor man’s one eye; and they have put out that eye, and quenched my light. But my eye is toward the Lord. I know I shall see the salvation of God and that my hope shall not always be forgotten.
O if I had paper as broad as heaven and earth, and ink as the sea and all the rivers and fountains of the earth, and were able to write the love, the worth, the excellency, the sweetness and due praises of our dearest and fairest Well-beloved! And then if you could read and understand it!
Let heaven and earth be consolidated into pure gold, it will not weigh the thousandth part of Christ’s love to a soul, even to me a poor prisoner…Keep in mind what I taught you…remember me to God in your prayers; I cannot forget you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
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Source: Morgan, Robert J. From this verse: 365 Inspiring stories about the power of God’s Word. Nashville, Tennessee. Thomas Nelson Publishers. 1998.
