“It is a beautiful evening for a walk and if we get to the pastures early maybe your papa will have time to tell you a story.” Rachel tells her son, Joseph.
“I love Papa’s stories.Papa and his sheep are right over there. May I please run to him so he can gin his story?”
“I will run with you, Joseph!” Rachel answers.
Rachel hikes her long brightly colored skirt to her knees, and the two race across the distance as the horizon spreads an endless canvas of vivid pinks and lavenders high in the sky. The sight of his father energizes Joseph’s steps. As the two near the shepherd, it is easy to see he is also wearing his simlah, a sleeveless, loose-fitting robe. Joseph giggles at the sight, knowing that his father will toss him high into the air with those strong arms.
“Oh, Papa, Papa, we have come so you’ll tell me a story! Mama said we might have time for one.”
“What story would you like to hear?” Jacob asks, also being glad for someone to talk to.
“Tell me the story about my grandfather,” is Joseph’s ready response.
“I should have guessed the story you’d choose,” teases Jacob with delight as he tosses Joseph heavenward and catches him.
Knowing he is in for an eventful story, Joseph giggles as he settled onto a grassy spot left by the sheep.
“Come sit by me, my dear,” Jacob motions to a grassy spot as he starts his story.
“There are three important facts that you must remember as I tell you this story.
The first is that my grandfather heard God speak.
The second is that he obeyed the command of God.
The last is that God honored my grandfather’s faith and credited it to him for his righteousness. Do you know what righteousness is?”
Joseph is quiet for a moment as if in deep thought. “Didn’t you say that righteousness was like a robe that we put on by faith over our heart?” Joseph asks.
“Yes, son, when you put on your simlah, your shepherd’s robe, you use your hands to put it on. In the same way faith is a symbol of your hands and takes hold of righteousness to cover your heart,” Jacob explains. “Because we believe our outward clothes carry great significance to our identification and feelings, so it is important for our hearts to always have on the robe of God’s righteousness,” Jacob continues. “Just as ministers, educators, and wealthy men wear only the meil-type clothes of a high ranking professional, so we, as God’s children must never display anything from our heart except for God’s righteousness.”
From there the story unfolds, “Abraham recognized God’s voice as he commanded him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and chose obedience to the command. My grandfather believed that God would raise his son from the dead if He actually required my father’s life,” Jacob says.
Joseph shivers as the sunlight wanes and at the thought of what could have happened. Jacob wraps Joseph into the folds of his own simlah robe to keep the young boy secure.
“God told Abraham to take wood, fire, and his promised son to a mountain in Moriah that He’d point out to him. Obediently Abraham took Isaac, his thirteen-year-old son, up the mountain. On the way Isaac asked him concerning the sacrifice, ‘You have wood and you have fire, but what about a sacrifice?’”
“Giving Isaac an answer of faith Abraham replied, ‘God will provide the sacrifice that is needed’”, Jacob recounts.
Jacob explains that Abraham took rocks that he found on the mountaintop and built an altar. Then he tied his son and laid him on the altar.
Joseph shivers within the folds of his father’s robe at the thought of his grandfather lying on the altar with his great-grandfather lifting the knife to slay him.
“It’s alright, Joseph,” Jacob reassures his young son. “Just in time God said, “stop! Now I know you’ll obey Me because you have not withheld your son from Me. You allowed your faith to lead you beyond your doubt and fear. Now look in the thicket and you’ll find a sacrifice acceptable to Me.’”
“Try to imagine how relieved your grandfather was when Abraham saw a ram caught by his horns in the thicket!” Jacob says.
Joseph sits in wide-eyed amazement realizing the goodness of God and how He had rewarded his great-grandfather’s faith and obedience.
“Now remember, Son,” Jacob breaks into his young son’s deep thoughts, “my grandfather’s faith was accounted to him for righteousness. Our faith in God becomes our righteousness in His sight. It wraps us in with God, just like I am wrapping you in my shepherd’s robe. Your great-grandfather’s faith was the spiritual robe he always wore. His symbolic robe is referred to as the ‘robe of righteousness.’ We can obtain our own robe of righteousness by faith and obedience.”
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