Sermon on the Mount ~ Part F
We continue our study of the Sermon in the Mount, beginning in Mattityahu 5:18.
Yeshua Came to Fulfill the Law ~ Part 2
Recall that in Yeshua Came to Fulfill the Law ~ Part 1, we only examined Mattityahu 5:17.
18 Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud (the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet) or a stroke (Only a tiny stroke distinguishes one Hebrew letter from another – for example, dalet (ד) from resh (ר) or beit (ב) from kaf (ך))will pass from the Torah – not until everything that must happen has happened.
Yes indeed! means truth or faithfulness, which is why the Hebrew and English word ‘amen means “It is true, so be it, or may it become true.”
19 So whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so teaches will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Mitzvot (singular mitzvah). A mitzvah is a commandment; traditionally, in the Torah, there are 613 mitzvot for the Jewish people to obey. In casual Jewish English, “doing a mitzvah“ means “doing a good deed, something nice, something helpful to someone, a favor”; but these meanings derive from the original sense, “a commandment” from God.
Because of the destruction of the last earthly Temple in 70 CE and the Ark of the Covenant now in God’s Temple in heaven (Revelation 11:19), many of those 613 mitzvot cannot be obeyed as commanded in the Torah.
20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness is far greater than that of the Torah-teachers and P’rushim, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven! ~ Mattityahu 5:18-20.
Yeshua calls His talmidim to a different kind and quality of righteousness than the Torah-teachers and P’rushim. They took pride in outward conformity to many extrabiblical regulations but still had impure hearts (see Mattityahu 23:5, 23, 27–28). But Kingdom righteousness works from the inside out because it first produces changed hearts and new, so that the actual conduct of Yeshua’s talmidim does exceed their righteousness.
In our next post, we continue to explore the Sermon on the Mount from Mattityahu’s Gospel.
My Heart is for Israel 