“When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the LORD had made with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. The LORD gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. It came about at the end of forty days and nights that the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant” (Deut 9:9-11).

The single most important book for helping us understand the New Testament is not the post second temple Jewish writings, nor commentaries written by the church fathers, reformers, and modern scholars (although these commentaries are quite helpful!). The best book for understanding the New Testament, hands down, is the Hebrew Bible — plain and simple.

Similar Sermon Different Moses

Let’s consider how this works in Deuteronomy 9. In the context of Moses’ forty-day fast, God gives him the “two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken to you at the mountain….” It is no coincidence Matthew tells us Yeshua fasted forty days and forty nights (Matt 4:2) just prior to his preaching of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7.). When we consider this unique juxtaposition of Yeshua’s Sermon on the Mount with his fast in its OT context (i.e., the Hebrew Bible), Matthew’s intended meaning hits us like a bolt of lightning. Matthew is equating the Sermon on the Mount with the “two tablets of stone written by the finger of God.”

Practically speaking, this means we must never treat the Sermon on the Mount, or any of Yeshua’s teachings for that matter, as really good, yet optional advice. Matthew’s allusion to the Hebrew Bible does not leave us this option. We must receive the Sermon on the Mount as “words which the LORD had spoken to you at the mountain.”

Matthew is equating the Sermon on the Mount with the “two tablets of stone written by the finger of God.”

No wonder Yeshua commissions his apostles, and us, to teach the nations to “observe all that I commanded you” (Matt 28:20). Being Yeshua’s disciple means we follow and teach the nations to observe his commands because they are the eternal word of God from heaven.

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away” (Matt 24:35).