After King David's son Solomon, things went downhill for Israel. During those years prophets tell the people to keep waiting for God to keep the blessings promised to Abraham...

They point the people to wait for God to rescue them from the oppression of sin and evil.

They point the people to wait a time when God will forget their sins forever and will live permanently with them in a covenant of peace that can never be broken.

And they remind the people to wait for the descendent of David who will secure these blessings for them, and become their King forever.

The prophets didn’t know exactly how or when God would send this deliverer. But they were given many little hints and clues. Isaiah prophesied the deliverer would be born to a virgin. Now how was that possible? Another said he would be born in the tiny insignificant town of Bethlehem where King David had come from. The Jews waited and waited and hundred of years passed. During that time empires rose and fell, and eventually the Roman Empire came to be. As the Jews waited, and suffered under the oppression of foreign armies, expectations grew. They longed for God to send his King marching in and give the Romans the boot and restore Israel to prominence and glory.

No-one had any idea what God actually had planned.

The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved