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Preparing to Die Well
Hebrews 9:27
One of the advantages of taking a vacation is that you can do some things you
don't normally have time to do. Since I love to read, I did a lot of
"recreational" reading on a recent vacation. I especially enjoyed getting to
finish a book I had started some time ago entitled, Andrew Jackson and the
Course of American Freedom, 1822-1832, by Robert V. Remini. This is volume two
of Remini's massive three-volume work on the life of "Old Hickory," our eighth
president. I ran across one story in the book that I thought was interesting.
In June, 1832, a massive cholera epidemic hit the United States, having been
transported to this country from Europe. It has been estimated that between June
1st and November 1st, 3-thousand people died from this disease, and one of the
hardest hit cities in the U.S. was Washington D.C. Nearing the end of his first
term, President Andrew Jackson, already in poor health at age 65, was warned by
his family back in Tennessee to get out of Washington and return to the
Hermitage, his
plantation home near Nashville, to ride out the epidemic. Jackson eventually did
return to Tennessee, but not until July 22nd.
Prior to his departure (June 21st), Jackson wrote a letter to his beloved
daughter-in-law, Sarah, to calm her fears for his health. In that letter, he
said, in part:
"My Dear Sarah, Knowing that we have to die we ought to live to be prepared to
die well, and then, let death come when it may, we will meet it without alarm,
and be ready to say, 'The Lord's will be done.'" (Remini, p. 387).
To be honest, this statement took me by surprise. Jackson spent most of his life
a skeptic at best, believing most if not all organized religions were out to
take money from the masses, and were harmful to society. He did profess to
accept Christ, on the urging of his wife Rachel, just prior to her death in
1828, and he "professed" religion from then until his death in 1845. However,
even his admiring biographer Remini refers to the above statement as "pious
fatalism," the last hope of an old man who desperately missed his wife and
wanted some hope that he might be with her again.
Whatever Jackson's spiritual condition might have been, I believe he expressed
poignantly and accurately a Scriptural truth that we all must accept. The author
of the book of Hebrews says, "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but
after this the judgment" (9:27). Jackson was right! We all have to die, and we
will all stand before God in judgment. How much calmer, how much more serene,
how much more composed could we be approaching our own deaths than knowing that
we had "lived well," and that we were prepared to face that judgment of God and
hear Him say, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34).
What about you? Are you striving to "live well" so that you can go to Heaven? If
not, then you are, in the words of a wonderful old song, "unprepared to meet
your God," and face the prospect of your own approaching death with alarm! Why
not correct that situation while you have opportunity? When you do, you will
know what Jackson was talking about, what Paul called that "peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding" (Phil. 4:7).
By Gary C Kerr
From Expository Files 1.6; June, 1994
