Advent meditation: After 70 years, God used Persia to destroy Babylon. Although the Persians were Gentiles, they believed in God and allowed the Jews to return to the land and rebuild the temple. However, the Jews were not able to restore the throne of David. Many Israelites felt they were still in exile in their hearts. God sent the prophet Daniel who prophesied that in 490 years, the messiah would finally come to rescue Israel from exile. The people misunderstood this as a worldly kingdom, but the real exile that Christ rescued us from is the exile from Eden so that we could once again have communion with God.

Prayer: O come, O come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appears. (From O come, O come, Immanuel)

Scripture: In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem.” [Then in the reign of Darius king of Persia] the elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by command of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia; and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy. They offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel twelve he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. And they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses. On the fourteenth day of the first month the returned exiles kept the passover. (Ezra 1:1-3, 6:14-19)

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