As a younger Christian I had a friend who advised me, “Never look back, always look forward!” That was good advice then, but now I wonder. Should we never look back? We should always look back in regard to our roots. When Paul said, “Forgetting those things which are behind” (Philippians 3:13, KJV), he meant his shortcomings. The man who never looks back is a man off course.
When God told Jacob, “Go up to Bethel” (Genesis 35:1), He meant, “Go backto the place where I first visited you” (cf. 28:16-22). Jacob and his family were in acute danger and their only safety was to return to the place where God was their Defender. To Jacob, Bethel was the place of the first vow. I need to visit again and again the place where God and I met, and where we first made our eternal commitments to each other. This personal reviving is my defense against whatever Canaanites might destroy me.
Jeremiah reminded the Jews that if they wanted “rest for [their] souls” they would have to “ask for the old paths” (Jeremiah 6:16, KJV, italics added). Spiritual progress is never found by cutting ourselves off from our spiritual roots. There is, indeed, a hazard in looking back, as Jesus pointed out (Luke 9:62); but there is also a hazard in keeping our eyes forever fixed forward.
The return to our roots is for the recapturing of our first love to God. The decline of religion always begins in taking God for granted. The call “Come back to Bethel” is the heart cry of a God who knows that love can grow cold, faith can shrivel, and vows can be broken. The one who returns is the one who finds rest, strength, and deliverance (Isaiah 30:15). God waits for the sign of my returning face and, seeing it, promises to be “gracious” (v. 18).
“But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first” (Revelation 2:4-5).
Daily with the King 