The Kingdom
Matthew 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted on account of righteousness, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Paul, in Hebrews chapter 11, speaking of those who in ancient days went against the “mainstream” and sought obedience to God, explains thus:
“36 And others received trials of mockings and scourgings, then further of bonds and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were cut in pieces - having died by slaughter of the sword, they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being in want, being afflicted, being mistreated, 38 (of whom the Society was not worthy,) wandering upon deserts and mountains and in caves and in the holes of the earth. 39 And all, being accredited through the faith, have not acquired the promise 40 of Yahweh, foreseeing for us something better, that not apart from us should they be perfected.”
In other words, they had not acquired it in the flesh, but they will be together with us in the last day.
Preservation
Matthew 5:13 You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost its savor, with what shall it be salted? It avails for nothing more than it is cast outside to be trampled by men!
Salt had a place in the ritual sacrifices, and a “covenant of salt” seems to represent exactly what salt was used for by our ancestors in the ancient world: preservation. “You are the preservation of the earth” would not be out of context. If it were not for the Children of Israel, Yahweh would have long ago destroyed the earth on account of its depravity.
Leviticus 2:13: And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.
Numbers 18:19 All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee.
2 Chronicles 13:5 Ought ye not to know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?
Manifesting the Kingdom
Most of the things which Christ taught in this Sermon on the Mount can also be found in the Old Testament. In reality, He was teaching nothing new, even if He was explaining much of it it differently, for there is nothing new under the sun. Today with Matthew chapters 6 and 7, we shall continue to see that these things which Christ taught His students are timeless, and existed in the Old Testament as well. If our race obeyed His Word, we would have heaven indeed.
Isaiah 49 contains many similar statements to those found in the Sermon on the Mount