Prophecy: Cyrus would be used by God to guarantee the return of a remnant. Jerusalem would be rebuilt and the Temple restored (Isaiah 44:28).
Date/Fulfillment: 688 B.C./538 B.C.
Significance: As God named Cyrus even before he was born, God knows what will happen—he is in control.
Prophecy: Babylon would be punished for destroying Jerusalem and exiling God’s people (Jeremiah 25:12).
Date/Fulfillment: 605 B.C./539 B.C.
Significance: Babylon was conquered by Cyrus the Great. God may seem to allow evil to go unpunished, but consequences for wrongdoing are inevitable. God will punish evil.
Prophecy: The people would spend 70 years in Babylon; then God would bring them back to their homeland (Jeremiah 29:10).
Date/Fulfillment: 594 B.C./538 B.C.
Significance: The 70 years of captivity passed (see the third note on 1:1), and God provided the opportunity for Zerubbabel to lead the first group of captives home. God’s plans may allow for hardship, but his desire is for our good.
Prophecy: God had judged the Babylonian Empire. It would be given to the Medes and the Persians, forming a new world power (Daniel 5:17-30).
Date/Fulfillment: 539 B.C./539 B.C.
Significance: Belshazzar was killed and Babylon was conquered the same night. God’s judgment is accurate and swift. God knows the point of no return in each of our lives. Until then, he allows the freedom for us to repent and seek his forgiveness.
God, through his faithful prophets, said that the people of Judah would be taken into captivity because of their sinfulness. But he also promised that they would return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city, the Temple, and the nation.