I know that you can revert back to a previous commit but it doesn't sound like the history will be gone. How can I revert back to a previous commit and make sure the commits that came after are gone forever?
Git reset command can achieve this.
You can run the git reset --hard command to revert back to a previous commit. Then run git push --force command to wipe out all the commits came after this commit on server.
git clone <repo_url> #clone your azure git repo to local
git checkout <branch>
git reset --hard <commithash> #revert back to a the previous commit
git push --force #push to remote server
After you run above git commands locally. You will see on azure devops git the commits coming after are gone.