Dust & Discipline Lesson Twelve - The Kingdom of Heaven in Jewish Thought

What Jesus Meant and What His Hearers Understood

When Jesus began His public ministry, His opening message was simple and arresting:
“The kingdom of heaven has drawn near.”

For many modern readers, “kingdom of heaven” sounds abstract, spiritual, or even otherworldly. It’s often reduced to ideas about going to heaven after death or to a vague sense of God ruling in our hearts.

That is not how Jesus’s Jewi…