Responsibly dealing with the consequences of our past is distinctly different to being a captive to our past. Our past always produces consequences because we all make mistakes, and we must learn to responsibly deal with consequences of those mistakes. Individuals can be captives to the past. I had a child when I was 16 and unmarried. That is a matter of decision, of choice.
Congregations can be captives to the past.
We had power hungry men and women who wanted to control things in the past. That is a matter of decision, a matter of choice. Life comes from God, not from the past, not from favorable circumstances. God could deliver Israel from the grave of their captivity and put them back in their homeland again, and God would do it. And when God did it, they would know that He was the Lord God, the God who spoke, the God who made it happen.