It’s a sad truth that religion often overrides faith and distorts the Truth. T’hillim 119.160 reminds us that the sum of Yah’s word is truth, and all His righteous right-rulings are forever. The effect religion can have on faith and truth is is evident in the attitude many believers today have regarding the Tanakh. For those unfamiliar with Hebrew terms, the Tanakh is the correct term for what many call the “Old” Testament. Those who choose to use the term “old” Testament tend to believe that with Y’shua’s crucifixion and resurrection many, if not most, of Elohim’s commandments are no longer relevant for believers. Sadly, this is certainly not what Messiah Y’shua instructed His followers to believe and practice in our daily lives. 
For instance in Mattityahu 5.17- 20, which is part of the Mount of Beatitude teachings, Y’shua taught His followers, 17Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Prophets.e I did not come to destroy but to complete. 18For truly, I say to you, till the heaven and the earth pass away, one yod or one tittle shall by no means pass from the Torah till all be done. 19Whoever, then, breaks one of the least of these commands, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the reign of the heavens; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the reign of the heavens, 20For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter into the reign of the heavens.
Y’shua taught that far from annulling any of His Father’s commandments or the writings of the Prophets, we, as His followers, are to keep even the least of the commandments and teach them to others so that they learn to keep them. Then He said something that is often overlooked. If our righteousness doesn’t exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees we will by no means enter into the reign of the heavens. Notice He specified the reign of the heavens, which doesn’t necessarily mean that those who choose not to keep the least commandments or have never been taught to keep them will not have a place in the World to Come. The World to Come is another way of referring to the Millennial Kingdom. I cover more on the subject of the reign of the heavens in another study if anyone is interested in that subject.
What Y’shua didn’t explain is how the righteousness of His followers can exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, probably because it wasn’t necessary. Those listening to Him that day clearly understood what He meant. They knew that for generations the scribes and Pharisees were guilty of breaking one of the fundamental commandments in Scripture, although they claimed they had the authority to do so. In D’varim 4.2 and again in D’varim 12.32 YHVH forbids anyone to add to or take away one word He has commanded, and that included His Son. Had Y’shua added to or taken away one word of His Father’s He would have sinned, meaning He could not have been the Messiah, the Lamb of Elohim, whose blood cleansed us of our sins.
Despite His repeated command, the scribes and Pharisees twisted YHVH’s word, took some words away and added some of their own. Their sins have led generations of Yisra’elites astray from the Torah. It also means that if a believer continues to ignore or overlook the Messiah’s teachings and follow leaders who add to or take away from His Word they are also guilty of the same sins and that person’s righteousness will not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.
Y’shua was very clear about His Father’s Word throughout His time among us. In Luqas 16.17 He said, And it is easier for the heaven and the earth to pass away than for one tittle of the Torah to fall. In Yochanan 14.24-25 Y’shua taught, 24He who does not love Me does not guard My Words. And the Word which you hear is not Mine but of the Father Who sent Me. 25These Words I have spoken to you while still with you. In Yochanan’s account of Y’shua’s life this teaching is repeated eight times. In doing so Y’shua fulfilled the prophecy given in D’varim 18.18-20. Elohim promised to raise up a Prophet for Yisra’el like Mosheh out of the midst of their brothers and put My Words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be, the man who does not listen to My Words which He speaks in My Name, I require it of him.
In Acts 3.22-26 and 7.37 His taught-ones confirmed that prophet was His YHVH’s Son, Messiah Y’shua. He is YHVH Elohim’s prophet and we have been warned to listen to Him or it will be required of us. In Acts 3.23 the phrase require it of him is translated as be utterly destroyed from among the people. Anyone choosing not to listen to Y’shua’s teachings, including what He taught about keeping even the least of them and teaching them to others, should carefully consider Yah’s warnings.
Throughout the short time He taught and ministered to the lost sheep of the House of Yisra’el, Y’shua consistently quoted from the Tanakh. During His temptation in the wilderness (Mattityahu 4.10): Y’shua told ha’satan to leave Him because it is written, You shall worship your Elohim, and Him alone you shall serve, quoting D’varim 6.13, Fear YHVH your Elohim and serve Him, and swear by His Name.
Also while in the wilderness (Mattityahu 4.4), He told ha’satan, It has been written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of YHVH quoting D’varim 8.3, And He humbled you, and let you suffer hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, to make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of YHVH. Once again Y’shua emphasized that we are to live by every word that has come from the mouth of our Father. In T’hillim 89.34 YHVH was sworn, I shall not profane My covenant, neither would I change what has gone out from My lips. I wonder how those who teach His covenant is no longer valid and YHVH has allowed men to change what the Father has spoken will explain themselves when Y’shua returns.
In Mattityahu 15.4 Y’shua taught told those gathered to hear Him, For Elohim has commanded, saying, He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death, quoting Sh’mot 21.17, And he who curses his father or his mother shall certainly be put to death.
In Mattityahu 18.16 He taught us that if a brother sinned against you and you went to him about his sin and he would not listen to you, then take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word might be established. This precedent was set from Mount Sinai. D’varim 19.15 states; One witness does not rise up against a man concerning any crookedness or any sin that he commits. At the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses a matter is established.
In Mattityahu 23.39, Y’shua quoted from T’hillim 118.26, Blessed is He who is coming in the Name of YHVH, We shall bless you from the House of YHVH. He told His taught ones, for I say to you, from now on you shall by no means see Me, until you say, ‘Blessed is He who is coming in the Name of YHVH. By quoting this passage from T’hillim Y’shua seemed to have an underlying message. When He returned, not only would we bless Him, we will bless Him from the House of YHVH, which probably is a reference to the Temple He will build when He returns.
Y’shua also frequently quoted from the Prophets, especially Yeshayahu. When He scolded the Pharisees and scribes in Mattityahu 15.8-9 telling them they drew near with their mouths and respected Him with their lips, but their heart was far from Him because they taught the commands of men were equal to His teachings, He quoted Yeshayahu 29.13, And YHVH says, “Because this people has drawn near with its mouth, and with its lips they have esteemed Me, and it has kept its heart far from Me, and their fear of Me has become a command of men that is taught!”
In Mattityahu chapter twenty-one Y’shua had come to Yerushalayim for Pesach. When He saw the money changers and those selling doves for sacrifices (which were for the very poor) He became angry, turning over the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves (21.12-13) As He did, He quoted from both Yeshayahu 56.7 and Yirmeyahu 7.11: It has been written, ‘My House shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers’.
Not along after this Y’shua described the end-time events in Mattityahu 24.29-30, quoting from Yeshayahu 13.9-11: 9See, the day of YHVH is coming, fierce, with wrath and heat of displeasure, to lay the earth waste, and destroy its sinners from it. 10For the stars of the heavens and their constellations do not give off their light. The sun shall be dark at its rising, and the moon not send out its light. 11And I shall punish the world for its evil, and the wrong for their crookedness, and shall put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and lay low the pride of the ruthless.
In Luqas 22.37 He also gave some detail about His crucifixion: For I say to you that what has been written has yet to be accomplished in Me, ‘And He was reckoned with lawless ones.’ For that which refers to Me has an end too. This was from a prophecy in Yeshayahu 53.12: Therefore I give Him a portion among the great, and He divides the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His being unto death, and He was counted with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Of course, Yeshayahu 52.13-53.12, provides more detail about His crucifixion. The truth is, without the Tanakh it would be next to impossible to recognize Y’shua as the Messiah.
Of all the books of the Tanakh, however, T’hillim (the Book of Psalms) is perhaps the one that Y’shua quoted from the most. For instance, In Yochanan 10.33-34, some of the Yehudim wanted to stone Y’shua for blasphemy because they claimed that He as a mortal man, who tried to make Himself Elohim by declaring Elohim was His Father. Keep in mind, this is not the definition of blasphemy given B’midbar 15.30, but then again, changing Yah’s Word was something they were accomplished in doing. In His reply Y’shua quoted from what was written in T’hillim 82.6: You are elohim, and all of you are sons of the Most High. 
In Mattityahu 21.42 (also in Luqas 20.17) Y’shua explained to the Chief Priests, who were Sadducees, as well as some of the elders of the people that He was the stone which the builders rejected who had become the chief corner-stone. This was from YHVH, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? He quoted directly from T’hillim 118.22-23.
During the Pesach meal in Yochanan 13.18 Y’shua revealed that one of His taught ones would betray Him. Kepha asked if he was the one, but Y’shua told him It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it. This fulfilled the prophecy in T’hillim 41.9, Even my own friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me. It would be Yehuḏah from Qerioth who left the Pesach meal and betrayed Him.
In Yochanan 15.24-25, Y’shua told His taught-ones, If I did not do among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin. But now they have both seen and have hated both Me and My Father, but...that the word might be filled which was written in their Torah, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’ This was a quote from T’hillim 35.19: Let not my lying enemies rejoice over me; Or those who hate me without cause wink their eyes, and in T’hillim 69.4, Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; They are mighty who would destroy me, My lying enemies; What I did not steal, I restored. 
There is little doubt those that hated Yeshua were the leaders among the Sadducees, scribes, Pharisees, some of whom served on the Sanhedrin. Keep in mind that the Hebrew word translated as hate generally means to reject and doesn’t necessarily involve personal feelings or emotions as the English word hate does. 
Another interesting point in this passage is Y’shua’s statement that what He didn’t steal, He restored. What had been stolen that Y’shua restored other than His Father’s laws, ordinances and commandments? Over the course of several generations the leaders of Yisra’el had systematically stolen the Word of YHVH by adding to and taking away from it, thereby creating what we know today as “rabbinic” Judaism. In order to be fair, the same thing happened as more and more gentiles became believers after Y’shua’s resurrection. In just a few generations their leaders followed the Jewish leaders as they began taking away many of YHVH’s commandments while adding many traditions based on pagan beliefs and rituals. In effect, they also stole YHVH’s Word as any research into church history will show. I realize that hearing such things often offends, even angers some, but the Truth has a way of doing that.  
One last point from this passage in Yochanan. T’hillim (the Psalms) is part of the K’tuvim (Writings), yet Y’shua said it was written in their Torah. Evidently Y’shua considered the K’tuvim to be part of the Torah as well, which has long been a traditional thought within some sects of Judaism - that all the Tanakh is Torah (teachings). 
As Y’shua and His taught ones left the Pesach meal and went to Gethsemane to pray before He was arrested, Mattityahu (in 26.38,) wrote that Y’shua told Kepha, Ya’akov and Yochanan, My being is exceedingly grieved, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me. Here Y’shua quoted from T’hillim 43.5, Why are you depressed, O my being? And why are you restless within me? Wait for Elohim: for I shall yet thank Him, the deliverance of my face, and my Elohim.
On the execution stake the next day, as both Matttiyahu (27.46) and Marqos (15.34) recorded, Y’shua called out, Ěli, Ěli, lemah sheḇaqtani?” that is, “My Ěl, My Ěl, why have You forsaken Me?. This is the opening verse of  T’hillim 22. Keep in mind however that during Y’shua’s time the Scriptures had not yet been divided into chapters and verses, so those hearing Y’shua would have understood He was referring to the entire passage of T’hillim 22 and that that prophecy was begin fulfilled before their eyes. (In other words, they wouldn’t have taken that first verse out of context which happens frequently with the the chapter and verse division of Scripture.
In Luqas 23.46, just before Y’shua breathed His last from that stake, He quoted from T’hillim 31.5: Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O YHVH Ěl of truth.
In regards to the World to Come Mattityahu 16.27 Y’shua taught that when He returned His followers and those believing in Him will be rewarded according to our works. For the Son of Aḏam is going to come in the esteem of His Father with His messengers, and then He shall reward each according to his works. Here He quoted from T’hillim 62.12: And loving-commitment is Yours, O YHVH for You reward each one according to his work.
Given how much of Y’shua’s teachings were from the Torah, the Nevi’im (Prophets) and T’hillim, it’s difficult to understand how any believer could honestly think that the “old” testament is no longer valid when the Tanakh (aka, the “old” testament) validates both that Y’shua is the Promised Messiah as well as what He taught. Y’shua is the Word - our Father’s Torah, Nevi’im (Prophets) and K’tuvim (Writings, including T’hillim) - that became flesh and dwelt among us.Yn.1.14 If a person believes the “old” Testament is now invalid, would that not also invalidate Y’shua as Messiah and His teachings? 
I realize many closely follow the teachings of Paul of Tarsus, but Paul himself wrote to the believers in Rome: Do we then nullify the Torah through the belief? Let it not be! On the contrary, we establish the Torah.Romans 3.31
It is my hope that this teaching, along with the teachings of many other of Y’shua’s followers who have remained zealous for the Torah, will encourage believers - Christian, Catholic and others, to rethink the importance and validity the Tanakh plays in a their lives today and truly embrace Y’shua as the Messiah by following in His footsteps, living and teaching as He lived and instructed His followers to live.
Shalom,
Yosef