COMMITMENT

It was 1948 when Irkutsk, a Russian Christian believer, received a 25-year sentence to a gulag in Siberia. After refusing to work on the Sabbath, he was ordered to stand in a 3 x 4 foot cell for 10 days with only water for nourishment.

For a year Irkutsk went through the same routine; in confinement for 10 days and out for four days. After a year, a general came to inspect the prison camp and found Irkutsk in solitary confinement.

When the general inquired about his confinement, the prisoner explained about the Sabbath. “I am a believer in God. A sign of my loyalty to Him is to rest on the Sabbath. However, I am prepared to work twice as much the day before in order to have the Sabbath off.”

The general took him at his word and Irkutsk was ordered to fill the reservoir with well water. The reservoir was large enough to supply water for the 1,000 prisoners. Prison officials provided him with an ox, and for 10 years he and that ox followed the same routine of working twice as fast the day before and resting on the Sabbath.

Later, Irkutsk was released for his outstanding work record, but the ox remained and assisted another prisoner as he transported water.

When the first Sabbath came, that ox lay quietly chewing his cud. Nothing would move the beast – neither shouting, pulling, threatening nor beating. Every Sabbath the same drama happened.

Finally the exasperated jailer told the prisoner, “You will never change the ox’s behavior. The Sabbath-keeper has made the ox into a Sabbath-keeper, and Sabbath-keepers are very, very stubborn!”

Deuteronomy 5:33 "Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days ..."

Tomorrows story is about a young Christian with old time Christian zeal.