Back To The Beginning

“Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.” (Eze 21:30 AV)

Abraham came out of the land of Ur.  This city is located in the northern territory of Chaldea.  It is the largest city of Shinar wherein the palace of Babylon stood.  Worship of the moon-god Sin was begun in this area and gives rise to the crescent moon on many state flags of the region.  Today, this area is modern-day Iraq.  It was from this place God called Abraham.  It was from Ur that God separated out a family and begun the nation of Israel.  This was truly their land of nativity.  It would also be the place wherein God removed Israel after centuries of idol worship.  They would go through the hardships of four-hundred plus years of slavery to a pagan nation, learning to worship their gods.  The LORD would bring them out only to see them turn to a golden calf.  Giving them Palestine through the leadership of Joshua, again the people would turn to the idols of their neighbors.  When Solomon arrived on the throne, this nation would again return to the gods of those around them.  Since the time of their nativity, these people have never learned to walk straight.  So, the LORD returns them to the land of their nativity.  Right back where it all started.  They can learn to walk right from the last time they veered.

There was an exercise we conducted with our children.  When they began to walk, we trained them to walk by keeping their eyes on the goal.  The end point.  Usually, it was either mom or dad.  What we added was a favorite toy.  Not in the hands of the receiving parent, but as an alternate choice.  They had to keep their eyes on the receiving hands so they would not veer off course for something we did not want them to attain.  Of course, when they started out, they always veered towards the object of an alternative choice.  This would cause them to tip to that side and fall.  Standing them upright, I always returned them to the point the veered off.  Never did I stand them upright where they fell.  The reason being, they would have been closer to the forbidden object.  By taking them back to the point of veering from the straight line, this reinforced the principle that you go back to the time a wrong decision was made, and make the right one.  By not going back to the time when my child made a wrong choice, he is not forced to confront that wrong choice and make a different one.  It was frustrating for the child.  To be sure!  The more we did this exercise, the angrier he seemed to be getting.  Until he settled into the reality wherein he could not have the forbidden object until he came to his mom, he would only get more and more frustrated.  Once he yielded to the demand, then he understood the best way to get where he truly wanted to go was to first go where he was supposed to go.

The LORD asks us to walk a path of righteousness and faith.  We often fail at it.  We fall flat on our faces.  We choose to panic under adverse circumstances.  Or, we choose to indulge in forbidden fruit.  Either way, at that point in our growth, we become stagnant.  We can go no further.  We can not learn new skills.  We cannot learn to trust in greater things.  We cannot gain victory over deeper rooted sin.  We cannot learn to walk until that point which caused us to veer off is addressed and overcome.  This is a pattern with the LORD.  Jonah is a classic example.  He was regurgitated on the banks of the river.  God told him a second time to go into the city of Nineveh and preach the gospel.  Jonah did not need to be retold because he had forgotten what God called him to do.  He was told the second time to go into Nineveh and the shores of the river because it was at the water’s edge he rejected the call, to begin with.  He had a choice.  Either go into Nineveh or seek another boat and try it all over again.  The place which the LORD may return us to may not be the exact place where we made the error.  The set of circumstances may be a different set of circumstances.  But the principles we are to learn do not change.  It amazes me some times how slow of a learner I am.  When asking the LORD why something may be happening, I am ashamed to admit the set of circumstances is addressing the elephant in the room.  I haven’t learned a lesson I should have already applied.  Back to Ur, I go.  Back to Ur you go.  Time to learn the lesson so we can get beyond the land of our nativity.