Priestly Judgment and the Justice Found Within Repentance

In our last issue, we discussed Herod the Great and the effect of not being told no had on his life. One such consequence is that he ordered the deaths of male toddlers in an attempt to unalive Baby Jesus. Because he was unsuccessful another life was not taken and that was John the Baptist.

You see, Jesus and John were cousins, and not only that they were six months apart. 

That being said, when I read Matthew 3:1,2 which says, 'In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” I was reminded of what David Baron wrote in his book, Zechariah: A Commentary on His Visions and Prophecies, he wrote,

‘After Malachi a pause of four long centuries intervened, during which there was no voice nor vision nor answer of God; but when the long silence was broken, the first words that fell on Israel’s ear from the mouth of the Baptist were, “Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” ^[1]

Again, when I read that verse remembered his statement and something in me made me question the validity because I thought about how an angel had spoken to both Zacharias the priest and the mother of Jesus. But then in true Godlike fashion, the Holy Spirit quickly checked me and reminded me that Mr. Baron said, ‘the first words that fell on Israel’s ear’ not individuals. That check then got me to thinking about the fact that four hundred years had passed before the angel told Zacharias, “Do not be afraid...for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John…’ Luke 1:13

Think about that for a moment. The fact that the first person to hear from heaven was a PRIEST. And not just any priest, a MARRIED priest who would later go on to do things priests today don't do which is to have relations. Yet ole Zacharias and Ms. Elizabeth had ordained relations. This is nothing short of the mercy of God, especially since the four hundred years of silence were caused by priests.

In Malachi 1:6-8, God is speaking to those priests when He says,

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master.If then I am the Father, Where is My honor?And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts

To you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’ ⁷ “You offer defiled food on My altar, But say, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’ By saying, ‘The table of the Lord is contemptible.’⁸ And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, Is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, Is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?” Says the Lord of hosts.

Here we see that the priest were accepting defiled animal sacrifices. The animals themselves were blind, lame and sick. What made this so abhorrent is that if the people themselves were so cavalier as to bring a defiled animal to a priest, then they themselves were that kind of a person. Meaning, if these people didn’t think much about the priests and that he was presenting this defiled animal to the Lord of Hosts, then that same cavalier attitude was present when it came to their loved ones and how they did life, both in and out of the church.

On the other hand, this also revealed flaws in the priests' character because they were the ones who accepted blind, lame and sick sacrifices which also meant this is how they did life and was a reflection of how they God. They neither checked nor corrected the people for presenting defiled animals. Nor did these priests, who had been ordained and trained to present sacrifices, show any deference or reverence for God, seeing as how they took the time to prepare a defiled sacrifice AND present it to the Most High God. 

So, again for God to then speak TO A PRIEST after determining there would be four hundred years of absolutely no communication from heaven was nothing short of miraculous and an extreme act of mercy.

To give you an idea of what these priests were doing, you’ll discover there were at least six other grievances that the Lord had with the priests which included:

1.     He told them He would curse their blessings, and had in fact, rebuked their descendants, of which would include those who had lived during the four hundred years of silence.

2.     He also spoke about their lack of knowledge, how they had departed from His ways and had even corrupted the covenant He’d made with the priestly tribe of Levi.

3.     God also revealed He would make the priests ‘contemptible and base’ which means the respect, admiration and priestly prestige they had so enjoyed, would be stripped…for the next four hundred years.

4.     He spoke to them about their unfaithfulness towards their wives. (Yes, priests then and today can have wives.

5.     He also told the priests they had wearied Him because of their words. There were some who had been saying things like, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord.” There were other who commented that God “delighted in those who were doing evil” while some even posed the question, “Where is the God of justice?”, and lastly…

6.     God also spoke to them about an offering in righteousness.

The grievance that we are going to dive into is that of God being a God of justice.

Interestingly enough, the Lord immediately answers the question about Him being a God of Justice when He says,

“Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts.

Wait. What does that mean?

The messenger in that verse can be found in Matthew 3:1, 2 which says, In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,  and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”  For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’ ” God foretold about John the Baptist’s ministry some four hundred years prior. The thing you and I need to know in 2026 is that John’s ministry of repentance was really an act of JUSTICE.

Huh?

Yes. The priests statements about evil being good, who they thought God delighted in, and the question of justice were answered when God said, “Behold, I send My messenger..." What you and I need to understand is that REPENTANCE can be an act of justice, in that failure for someone to do so will give us the justice we seek.

Repentance is an act of justice.

When I saw that I was reminded of a time when the spirit of the Lord revealed to me that anytime a crime is committed, that even though the criminal may get away, the sin of that crime will demand repentance and/or judgment. And until one or the other happens, that crime will never go away and the consequences of that crime and the judgment of that sin won’t either. Therefore, repentance is an act of justice because failure to do so guarantees judgment.

Proof of this can be found in Matthew 3:7 when John the Baptist tells the Pharisees and Sadducees, “…Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Wrath is defined as ‘justifiable abhorrence, punishment, anger, indignation, and/or vengeance.’ ^[2] Thus proving that when John said, Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?, he was also saying “Who warned you of the justifiable abhorrence, punishment, anger, indignation and vengeance which is to come…IF YOU DO NOT REPENT.”

Again, terms like abhorrence, punishment, anger, indignation, and vengeance usually never come to our minds when we think about repentance. Never would I ever have thought about repentance in that way I have written a book on the subject and nowhere in all 227 pages with eighty-three different ways on why it needed, did I write about it being an act of JUSTICE. Not once. (But still be sure to get your copy 😊)

But I have to thank God because just yesterday I watched a 60-Minute video on Epstein’s Zorro Ranch and it got me to thinking that if those girls told someone else to come to the ranch or to the island, then there could be a sense of guilt, on the victims’ part. This could possibly explain why intelligence agencies have gone decades without prosecution - simply because victims or participants may have had told a friend to tell a friend. Either way, the victims have no reason to feel guilty but in the event they do, they can simply repent and thereby the justice that has alluded them can come now, simply because they repented for whatever guilt the enemy has talked them into. Not saying that they have not but it’s good to know.

To give you an idea of what repentance looks like, it has been beautifully defined for us in Matthew 3:2, 8, and 11 of the Amplified Classic Version (AMPC) which defines it as:

• Thinking differently; a change of mind, regretting your sins and changing your conduct.

• Letting your life prove your change of heart, and…

• Changing your mind for the better, heartily amending your ways, with abhorrence of your past sins

Therefore, once you, or those victims repent, if there was something that happened that involved justice, you can now rest assured justice will occur - if the other party has not repented. Hence, their failure to do so guarantees judgment. So, if you are in need of justice, you may want to repent because therein may lie the justice you seek.

Source

1- Baron, David. Zechariah: A Commentary on His Visions and Prophecies. Kregel Publications, 2001. p. 14.

2-"G3709 - orgē - Strong's Greek Lexicon (KJV)." Blue Letter Bible. Web. 28 Apr, 2026. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3709/kjv/tr/0-1/>.