Isaiah 9 is God's promise to Israel to send a king who would deliver them from oppression and bring them joy. This news was especially needed at the time it was given, a time of oppression and war, a time of spiritual darkness and despair. Into that darkness God shone His Light, the promise of a delivering king, giving His people hope. That King was Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem and spent much of his ministry in Galilee, the very place that suffered the greatest oppression in Isaiah's day. Yet, most of Israel did not recognize Him as the fulfillment of God's promise, since he did not bring immediate political deliverance from Rome. In Isaiah's announcement that a "child is born", he demonstrated that this king would be human, but in saying that a "Son is given", he emphasized the divine nature of this king.