Judah was in exile in Babylon. Remember what happened? Nebuchadnezzar and his big army came to the holy city, Jerusalem. They did some really bad things. Stole treasures. Burned the temple. Broke down walls. Killed people. And took whoever was left back to Babylon. Seventy years passed. Can you count to seventy? It takes a while to do. Imagine living that long in exile—day after day, year after year! Imagine being a slave in a strange land, far from home.

As powerful as the Babylonian Empire was, God is more powerful. He raises up nations and brings them to nothing. God raised up the Persian Empire to conquer the Babylonians. That’s power! Then, in love, he remembered his promises to his people. “The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia” (2 Chron. 36:22) and made him decree that God’s people should return to God’s holy city, Jerusalem. What power God has! “The Lord . . . has given me all the kingdoms of the earth,” King Cyrus wrote, “and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah” (36:23). What? Build God a house? What does that mean? It means that God wanted the Persian king to send his people home and build a temple where God could dwell with them. And that’s just what King Cyrus did. And after they built the temple, they began another building project.