Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

The Northern Kingdom of Israel is falling apart, but the Southern Kingdom of Judah is still

moving along and that's where we find ourselves today.

King Uzziah has just died and his son Joseph takes over the throne officially.

Joseph was one of the good kings in the Southern Kingdom and 27th 6 says he became mighty because

he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.

It's important to note that this corresponds directly to God's covenant promise with the

kings of David's line.

He promised them that if they obeyed him then flourished and if they didn't, they wouldn't.

It's important to remember these kinds of context details, otherwise we might be tempted

to look at our own lives or the lives of others and try to determine what their faith

is like based solely on their apparent circumstances.

After Joseph dies, his son A has taken over the throne and he is not a great king.

We'll read more about him in two days, so buckle up.

Moving on to our chapters in Isaiah, the early parts of chapter 9 include some verses you

may have recognized as Messianic prophecy or maybe you just thought, hey, that's on a

lot of Christmas cards.

It's natural for us to look at this and immediately attach it to Jesus, but let's talk about

what people in Isaiah's time would have thought of this prophecy.

They're living in a land that constantly sees war.

They've experienced lots of oppression and exile, their nation state exists in division

and decay, and they currently live with the threat of the Assyrians attacking them.

...