If we can agree that the Old Testament is full of foreshadowing, pointing a flashlight to Jesus Christ, then we must also realize that since there is no Torah or prophets without Jesus, then there can be no Jesus without His Torah and the words He spoke into the mouths of the prophets. Jesus is the Word - the human embodiment of the Old Testament, including the Torah, which is God’s gift to His people.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”John 1:1-5
One cannot love Jesus for who He is and not love His ways, which are the ways of the Father.
“Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.” John 5:19
In the same way, one cannot learn Torah without a deep appreciation of all that Jesus forgives of them. Torah and Jesus go hand in hand. I believe that once you read the Bible with the understanding that the Word is Jesus and none of it should ever be cast aside or ignored just as I pray you would never cast aside your own salvation or ignore it, you are then grafted into Israel, as an adopted daughter of Abraham through faith, and you realize the reality of how every single word is applicable to life forever even for those born Gentile but able to enter His sanctuary by the blood of Christ, and that it is much easier to understand - even the “muddy” parts.
Jewish people used the word “heaven” as a circumlocution to avoid saying the name of God. So, when “kingdom of heaven” is mentioned in the Bible, it can be assumed to be synonymous with “kingdom of God,” or the time when Jesus descends back onto the Mount of Olives to begin His reign as King. Additionally, the word “heaven” can be synonymous with the word “God,” as in when Jesus said “Store up treasure in heaven,” it meant, “Store up treasure with God.” In other words, accumulate merit and reward with the LORD, not on earth. Put your money, your resources, and your efforts into God’s work and God’s priorities, and then you will have reward from God.
The apostles spoke of “the hope laid up for [us] in heaven” (Colossians 1:5), which is the same as saying “the hope we have with God.” Likewise with 1 Peter 1:4, we have an inheritance with God, as in, here on earth.
“After many days you shall be mustered; in the latter years you shall go against a land restored from war, a land where people were gathered from many nations on the mountains of Israel, which had long lain waste; its people were brought out from the nations and now are living in safety, all of them.” Ezekiel 38:8
After the exile from Eden, God looked for a people who would obey His voice so that He could dwell with His creation again as He planned to do in the beginning. He would make them “as numerous as the stars in the sky” and would bring them to a land “flowing with milk and honey.” This has yet to be fulfilled, because of our sin. However, our hope is not gone, because after years of prophecy and Jesus coming as both our example of obedience as well as our example of the fulfillment of His promises, we know that He will once again dwell with His people in the Promised Land!
“Thus says the Lord God: On that day thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme. to seize spoil and carry off plunder; to assail the waste places that are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from the nations, who are acquiring cattle and goods, who live at the center of the earth. You will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the earth. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I display my holiness before their eyes. On that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord God, my wrath shall be aroused. For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare: On that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the animals of the field, and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all human beings that are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground. I will summon the sword against Gog in all my mountains, says the Lord God; the swords of all will be against their comrades. With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him; and I will pour down torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur, upon him and his troops and the many peoples that are with him. So I will display my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel 38:10, 12, 16, 18-23
The words that Jesus put in the mouths of the prophets to proclaim are very clear imageries of what to expect at the time of His reign. Again He warns:
“My holy name I will make known among my people Israel; and I will not let my holy name be profaned any more; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. It has come! It has happened, says the Lord God. This is the day of which I have spoken. As for you, mortal, thus says the Lord God: Speak to the birds of every kind and to all the wild animals: Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat fat until you are filled, and drink blood until you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you. I will display my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for my holy name. They shall forget their shame, and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when they live securely in their land with no one to make them afraid, when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies' lands, and through them have displayed my holiness in the sight of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God because I sent them into exile among the nations, and then gathered them into their own land. I will leave none of them behind;” Ezekiel 39:7-8, 17, 19, 21, 25-28
You may or may not know, but the current state of Israel is not yet in peace as the LORD has promised. This is how we know that it is yet to be fulfilled, and when it is finally fulfilled, He will be king. That is why at His last supper, Jesus tells His apostles:
“for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” Luke 22:18
When the time comes of the Messiah, we will eat and drink until we are full and satisfied!! He is preparing a banquet for us all who live in Him for when we are finally reunited and can celebrate as the bridegroom and the bride - finally together after our long wait.
All this confusion about heaven resulted from our separation from Judaism, as we see given the amount of confusion even about the word “heaven.” Let’s leave this gnostic view of Jesus’ teachings behind and get to the Truth.
Heaven is real. When we die, our souls are with the LORD while we await the day when we receive the privilege of being reunited with our bodies at the time of the resurrection of the dead. However, heaven, or being with the spirit of God, is not our ultimate goal and promise from our Messiah. If we were to stay there for eternity, then we would have eternal death, not eternal life, since our bodies are still dead. Our home is here, in this world, and in this body of flesh and blood and bone just as Jesus showed us, being the first fruit of the resurrection:
“Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.””John 20:27-29
Spending eternity in heaven as a disembodied spirit would be eternal death, not eternal life. Jesus came to prove this by showing that he was not a ghost. That is why the apostles went out proclaiming, “Believe in Jesus who was crucified and on the third day rose from the dead.” They did not go out proclaiming that on the third day, Jesus went to heaven.
The good news is about resurrection - physical, bodily, literal resurrection from the dead.
“If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.” 1Corinthians 15:13-14
That is why our hope is not in heaven. Our hope is here on earth (in this world but not of this world). Prophecies are literal. Prophets said there will be a literal coming of a Messiah from the house of David who would usher in the kingdom of heaven and redeem the Jewish people from the nations and establish a new world order of peace; that God is just and He punishes sin and rewards righteousness. And it happened. God offered His very own Son, in the form of a humble Nazarene, to prove that He is with the lowly and will exalt those who obey Him to royal status in the coming Kingdom.
In the first resurrection, the exiles of Israel and those who are in Messiah will be raised to life, gathered to Messiah, and brought to the kingdom. The second resurrection comes at the conclusion of the kingdom and just prior to the final judgement. All the dead will then be raised. Every human being who has ever lived will come back to life to stand in judgment for deeds they committed in their lives.
““Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” John 5:25-29
“Then I saw thrones, and those seated on them were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4-6
When the Messiah comes with a shout, the voice of an archangel, and the voice of the shofar of God, the dead in Messiah will rise and be caught up with him in the clouds to meet Him in the air. Those of us still alive at that time will be caught up with Him as well, and He will carry everyone to Jerusalem.
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”Romans 6:5
“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” Romans 8:11
Confidence in the resurrection changes your whole life, or outlook on life and death, and the way we live our lives-at least it should. In fact, the resurrection of Jesus goes one further and demands the existence of God himself. To accept the premise that Jesus literally rose from the dead requires accepting the whole package of biblical truth and the message of the kingdom.
‘It is about the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’
Acts 24:21
If you would like to learn more, then I encourage you to continue reading D. Thomas Lancaster’s evidence for this hope as Christians in his book, Elementary Principles: Six Foundational Principles of Ancient Jewish Christianity.
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