The Kingdom Of Heaven Part 1: Importance of the text in Messianic claims

Shema Israel, Adonai elohenu- Adonai echad
ve' ahavta et Adonai eloeikah
b' khol l evavkah, uve' khol naphshekah, uve' khol m' odekah
ve' ahavta l' re' acha comocha. Amen.


Throughout the following posts, the resounding question is "what is the kingdom of heaven"? RVL argues that the Kingdom of Heaven makes its first appearance in the Exodus. But in order to see why he makes that claim, we have to first look at who Jesus was...not to us now, but to the people he walked among.
Jesus was from Galilee. Galilee is an agricultural region positioned on the sea. Fishermen were not common in this area because fishing was not a job that most people wanted. As a general rule, the Jews are not fans of the water. In fact the "sea" is most often used in descriptions of chaos and hell. For most Jews, the sea was not somewhere they wanted to be. However, the prophet Ezekiel had seen a vision (recorded in chapter 47) in which the Dead Sea (which is aptly named as nothing lives in it) would become fresh and pure due to a river that would flow from the temple. The water would be "redeemed" so to speak and the chaos would be overcome. This prophecy was well known by all the Jews of Jesus' time. In this prophecy, it is said that fishermen would line the banks of the Dead sea from En-gedi to En-eglaim. So fishermen already have a place in "kingdom of heaven" prophecy.
So when 5 of the 12 disciples (again, not a common occupation) were fishermen, the Jews took notice...could he be claiming to be Messiah? As RVL said, this would be as if someone chose 12 people to be their disciples nowadays and 5 of the 12 were nuclear physicists. Very rare and would definately draw attention.
Many Westerners assume that Jesus chose fishermen because they were brave, or strong...but that's not how Jesus worked. Jesus always used to text to make his point, not logic. He chose fishermen because he knew they would be associated with the Kingdom of Heaven and he was claiming to be Messiah.
Why 12 disciples? There were 12 tribes in Isreal. 12 sons of Jacob. In Messianic prophecy, the Messiah is known as the 2nd Moses. Moses led the 12 tribes out of Egypt. He was drawing the correlation between himself and Moses, and in so doing he was claiming to be Messiah.
The New Testament is devoid of meaning if not read and understood through the lense of the Old Testament because Jesus always used the Old Testament and his audience's understanding of the Old Testament to teach and to prove his Messianic claims. Understanding of the Old Testament and the Jewish culture is imperative to understanding our Savior and His message.