The Mercy of God – by Issam Hessen

This testimony, written on August 13, 1992, is posted in memory of our dear brother Issam, who passed away on July 20, 2017, one year ago.

Text edited by Petra van der Zande

The school holidays started on July 1^st, and my wife and I planned to travel to the Galilee with the children to visit my family. A few days later I went to East Jerusalem to return some books which we decided not to use for our ministry – “the Call of Hope”. After that, I planned to see the Rabbi of a synagogue, but because it was Friday, the synagogue was closed.  I returned home earlier than planned.

My mind and soul is always busy with the work of the Lord. Like all faithful children of God, my mind is filled with gratefulness -that is what counts in my life. Therefore, I expect every good thing from the Lord, the least of which is protection for me and my family.

The moment I entered my house, I found my wife kneeling next to the couch in the salon with five-year old Jonathan. (I have 3 daughters and one son). The Lord already showed me signs that He has plans for my son.

But now, Jonathan looked like a slain lamb. “We must immediately call ambulance and take Jonathan to the hospital,” my wife said. “His leg is broken.”

While playing football with a friend, Jonathan had broken his left femur bone, just above the knee. It was a complicated fracture, and we spent 12 days and nights with our little boy in the hospital. The fractured leg had to be brought back in place with a cast and traction, causing excruciating pain. Nobody else could sleep because of his suffering.

Jonathan shared his hospital room with a seven-year-old girl and her father, an orthodox Jew who stayed with her all the time.

“Don’t these trials weaken your faith?” I asked him.

“No,” he responded without hesitating. “Three years ago, one of my babies, who was only a few months old, died,” he said. “Since that time, I stopped questioning God why things are happening to me and my family. God promised us the coming life, not this.”

He told me that his father came from a Haredi family (Haredi means “men who fear God”). “I am also Haredi,” he explained. “After my father lost his whole family during the Holocaust, he no longer want to be religious. However, after having lived in the world for several years, my father decided to return to God.” Looking at me, he said, “There are many things we don’t understand, so just leave it all to God and do not think of it anymore.”

When something happens, like my son’s terrible mishap, one begins to question the love of God. In the book of Psalms, the love of God and His goodness are described as great. In Psalm 145:7 it is written: “They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy GREAT goodness. The Bible is full of promises, but these are for the Righteous who FEAR God.”

After a calamity, a child of God begins to check his conduct, his deeds, his desires and motives.

“What wrong did I do, Lord?” I asked. “Why did this have to happen to Jonathan?”

The most terrifying thought however was: “Did God leave me?”

For our Lord Jesus, the most difficult moment of His life on life on earth was not when He was on the cross, but when He felt abandoned by God. “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” He screamed. (Matthew 27:46)

Upon hearing the Lord’s statement about “eating His flesh and drinking His blood”, many of His disciples left Him. It was because they did not know Him. His true disciples however, refused to leave Him. Peter said: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68).

In difficult and even desperate situations, a believer who truly knows the Lord can only say, “Lord, to whom shall we go, when we know You are the true God.”

Was what happened to my son Jonathan, a temptation?

Was it to test us and strengthen our faith?

Was it punishment?

Was it the Lord’s perfect will to teach us the fear of God?

Whatever the reason was, like Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego we shall say, “The Lord is able to deliver us... but if not... we will not serve other Gods.”  (Daniel 3:17,18)

And together with Habakkuk we repeat: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat: the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength and He will make my feet like hind’s feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high place.” (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

About Issam

Issam was born into a Druze family from Rama, Galilee, Israel. Being very ambitious, he also lived and studied several years abroad. During this period he went through a very difficult time. Someone gave him a Bible and told him, “Jesus is alive today! You can ask Him to help you get out of these difficulties.”

After reading about God’s miracles in the Bible, Issam asked God to help him. By revealing Himself through dreams and visions, God miraculously brought Issam out of his difficulties. From that time on, Issam didn’t become less ambitious, but rather more so – he dedicated his whole life to God. The focus of his life now became studying, living and teaching the ways of God from the Bible.  

Many years later, during Issam’s long illness, this testimony which he wrote back in 1992, became a source of encouragement for himself and his family.

The Lord called His faithful servant to His eternal home in July 2017. May Issam’s memory continue to be a blessing and inspiration, to the glory of God.

Behind the Hymns - The God of Abraham's Praise

From The Yigdal of Daniel ben Judah, a Jewish judge in Rome, circa 1400, paraphrased by Thomas Olivers, circa 1765; first appeared in The Gospel Magazine, April 1775. The lyrics are based on the 13 creeds of Moses Maimonides (circa 1130-1204).

Thomas Olivers 1725-1799

One night in London, [Olivers] was attracted to a service in a Jewish synagogue, where he heard a great singer, Leoni, sing an ancient Hebrew melody in the solemn, plaintive mode and he became impressed with a desire to write a hymn to that tune. The result was our hymn, The God of Abraham Praise, which in a sense is a paraphrase of the ancient Hebrew Yigdal, or doxology, though Olivers gave to it a distinctly Christian flavor.

The story is told of a young Jewess who had been baptized into the Christian faith, and in consequence was abandoned by her family. She fled to the home of the minister, poured out her heart to him, and as if to show that, after all, her joy in her new-found Saviour was greater than all her loss of home and family, she sang, "The God of Abraham Praise."

Leoni Hebrew melody, Sacred Harmony, 1780

The God of Abraham praise, who reigns enthroned above;

Ancient of everlasting days, and God of Love;

Jehovah, great I AM! by earth and Heav’n confessed;

I bow and bless the sacred name forever blessed.

The God of Abraham praise, at whose supreme command

From earth I rise—and seek the joys at His right hand;

I all on earth forsake, its wisdom, fame, and power;

And Him my only portion make, my shield and tower.

The God of Abraham praise, whose all sufficient grace

Shall guide me all my happy days, in all my ways.

He calls a worm His friend, He calls Himself my God!

And He shall save me to the end, thro’ Jesus’ blood.

He by Himself has sworn; I on His oath depend,

I shall, on eagle wings upborne, to Heav’n ascend.

I shall behold His face; I shall His power adore,

And sing the wonders of His grace forevermore.

Tho’ nature’s strength decay, and earth and hell withstand,

To Canaan’s bounds I urge my way, at His command.

The watery deep I pass, with Jesus in my view;

And thro’ the howling wilderness my way pursue.

The goodly land I see, with peace and plenty blessed;

A land of sacred liberty, and endless rest.

There milk and honey flow, and oil and wine abound,

And trees of life forever grow with mercy crowned.

There dwells the Lord our king, the Lord our righteousness,

Triumphant o’er the world and sin, the Prince of peace;

On Sion’s sacred height His kingdom still maintains,

And glorious with His saints in light forever reigns.

He keeps His own secure, He guards them by His side,

Arrays in garments, white and pure, His spotless bride:

With streams of sacred bliss, with groves of living joys—

With all the fruits of paradise He still supplies.

Before the great Three-One they all exulting stand;

And tell the wonders He hath done, through all their land:

The listening spheres attend, and swell the growing fame;

And sing, in songs which never end, the wondrous name.

The God who reigns on high the great archangels sing,

And Holy, holy, holy! cry, Almighty King!

Who was, and is, the same, and evermore shall be:

Jehovah—Father—great I AM, we worship Thee!

Before the Savior’s face the ransomed nations bow;

O’erwhelmed at His almighty grace, forever new:

He shows His prints of love—they kindle to a flame!

And sound thro’ all the worlds above the slaughtered Lamb.

The whole triumphant host give thanks to God on high;

Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, they ever cry.

Hail, Abraham’s God, and mine! (I join the heav’nly lays,)

All might and majesty are Thine, and endless praise.


http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/g/o/d/godofabe.htm