The Bible

 

Isaiah 43:17

Study

       

17 Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow.

Commentary

 

Back (as in go back)

  
Photo of notes in a jar, by Jenny Stein

The meaning of “back” is more literal when it is connected to objects. When someone takes something back or gives something back, the spiritual meaning is mostly centered on the object in question and the people performing the action.There are many instances in the Bible which describe people turning back, looking back or going back. In most cases it is a negative, sometimes devastatingly so (as with Lot’s wife, turned to a pillar of salt when she looked back at the destructrion of Sodom). In general this represents our state when we are advancing to a new spiritual level and find ourselves wishing for the comfort and ease of the old one – going back represents a return to an earlier, inferior stage.