When All The Bridges Are Down Series

Sometimes, life just seems to blow up right before us. Several years ago, an amazingly effective church developer was sent by his bishop to a recently planted church in a Midwestern state that was struggling. This young pastor had developed quite a reputation for being able to help newly established churches that were struggling. He had planted and successfully nurtured a number of congregations. This pastor was not only well trained and richly gifted by God, but he also had a winsome, attractive personality. He welcomed the opportunity once again to help a struggling congregation turn the corner and move into a chapter of its young life where it would flourish.

When he arrived at the church field, he immediately went to work. He visited each family in the church and began to reach out to unchurched families in the neighborhood. He worked tirelessly using every method he had been taught. Still, the church did not grow. Weeks turned into months and not much changed about this congregation. The pastor became increasingly discouraged, even angry, and finally he began to battle depression. He had always been able to help churches become unstuck, but somehow the renewal of this congregation eluded him. His sense of defeat and despair became worse and worse until he asked the bishop to relieve him of his duties. His mental and emotional condition became dire. He could not get over the worst defeat of his life. Eventually, he turned to professional counselling and finally dropped out of pastoral ministry altogether.

Later, he wrote about this experience in his life and entitled the piece “When All the Bridges Are Down.” The phrase seems to reflect a military situation where a company of troops in battle is pinned down on an island, is being fiercely attacked by the enemy soldiers, and is trapped because all the bridges off the island have been blown up. Have you ever been in such a situation in life? Sometimes, despite all our efforts, life does not go the way we had planned.

This is a common experience of people in the Bible, but there is probably no one who is trapped on an island with no bridge off any more than Elijah in our Scripture passage. Elijah was God’s fearless prophet who was sent to the people of Israel at one of the most difficult and confusing times in their lives. A prophet in the Old Testament is primarily a preacher whom God has sent to Israel to warn them of God’s coming judgment upon them unless they repent of their sins. As we read about the Israelites in this part of 1 Kings, we discover that they were struggling with whether to worship Baal along with God. You see, they now occupied the land of Canaan, and they had to learn a new way of life. Prior to their entrance into the land, they had been wanderers who grazed their sheep on the open lands. They never had to worry about planting grass for their sheep to eat. They just moved them to the next meadow of grass. When they entered Canaan and settled there, they now had to farm the same piece of land year after year. Their Canaanite neighbors believed that Baal controlled the fertility of the soil. Therefore, to survive at farming, one had to worship Baal.

The Israelites thus were tempted by Baal worship. At this time, Israel was ruled by a weak king named Ahab who was married to Jezebel. Jezebel really was the power behind the throne, and she was a zealous worshipper of Baal and thus she promoted Baal worship in Israel. God sends Elijah to warn the Israelites that God will not tolerate a divided allegiance in His people.

This scene in 1 Kings 19 is preceded by one of the most dramatic stories in the Old Testament in 1 Kings 18. The showdown between Baal and God had come to a head. Elijah gathers on top of Mount Carmel for a contest which will decide finally which God Israel will follow—Baal or God. An altar is built of stones, a sacrifice is placed on it, and then the people would see which God consumed the sacrifice—Baal or God—and the people would follow and worship him.

Jezebel has her own “seminary” of 450 prophets of Baal. After the sacrifice is placed on the altar, they march around it praying to Baal, calling upon him to consume the sacrifice and show that he is lord. Baal is as silent as a tomb. The prophets get louder in their cries and then they begin to wail and weep, begging Baal to show his power, but Baal is as silent. Finally, in desperation, some of them cut themselves with swords as they cry out to Baal, hoping that the flow of their own blood will spark him to speak or act, but Baal is as silent. The 450 prophets of Baal are unable to get him to act.