Adore - the Teen Girl's Guide to AdventSample

The Prophecy Candle

The first candle of Advent is called the “Prophecy candle.” It symbolizes hope. It's lit on the first day of Advent to remember the prophets of old, who wrote about the birth of a Messiah long before He was even born! Isaiah in particular wrote some of the most famous verses about the birth of the Messiah, also called a "Savior."

Isaiah was hopeful about the Messiah's birth and was trying to express that hope to Israel, who desperately needed a Savior. For years afterward, the Israelites would read Isaiah’s words and anxiously wait for the birth of their Messiah to save them.

John the Baptist is another famous prophet who told the people about the Messiah’s coming. John was Jesus’s cousin! He knew early on that Jesus was the Messiah and spread the word to everyone within his reach. John was a little older than Jesus and was born in some of the craziest circumstances you could think of! (We will discuss these circumstances later on in this devotional.)

Isaiah and John are only two prophets out of many that prophesied about Jesus being the Messiah.

These prophets knew what it meant to have hope. They had hope that Jesus would do everything that was prophesied about Him. They had hope that He would bring peace to a dying world. They had hope that He would save people from their sins. That is why we light the Prophecy candle on the first day of Advent - to remind everyone about the wonderful hope we have through Jesus’s birth.