July 4

The Cords Of The Grave Coiled Around Me

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior—from violent men you save me. I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.

The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears.

2 Samuel 22:2-7

Life often takes on new meaning after near-death encounters. There is a sense of urgency to live life to the fullest. For believers, it is often a time of recommitment to God and a time for reassessment and redirection of ministry. This was true in the life of Dr. V. Raymond Edman, who is remembered most for his twenty-five years as president of Wheaton College.

In 1923, Edman began what he thought would be lifelong missionary service with the Christian and Missionary Alliance to work among Ecuador’s Quechua Indians. His fiancée joined him the following year, and after their wedding they set out on a two-day ride on horseback to their mission outpost. Their ministry, however, was suddenly interrupted the following summer. Edman was stricken with typhoid fever. “He eventually sank into a coma and was deemed to be dead. A coffin draped in black was ordered, and the funeral service announced for Saturday afternoon, July 4, 1925. Mrs. Edman had her wedding dress dyed black for the service.

“At that very time, far away in Attleboro, Massachusetts, the people attending the Alliance’s Camp Hebron, without any knowledge of the situation, felt a compelling urge to go to prayer for Edman. After two hours of burdened praying, the day’s schedule of services was resumed.” Edman recovered from that near-death encounter, and after a time of recuperation back in the United States, returned to Ecuador to serve as the director of a training school which is today Guayaquil Seminary of the Alliance. His missionary service, however, came to an end in 1928, when he was faced with a second near-fatal illness.

Back home in Massachusetts, Edman served as the pastor of an Alliance church while he took graduate studies culminating in a doctoral degree in American History. He lived a disciplined life. “He never rose later than 5 am . . . for reading the Bible and prayer.” He was a scholar and a writer, and “a man who could converse, teach and preach in Swedish, German, Spanish, French, and Quechua.” His mind was “saturated with reams of memorized Scripture” and with names of students.

After three more close encounters with death, Edman died following a Wheaton chapel message in 1967, entitled “In the Presence of the King.” ⁴