Eastern Divine Warrior Hymns. I invite you to participate
in the visualization of a passage in Isaiah 63 in which God returns
from a battle waged against Israel's enemies, a battle that God
is forced to fight, not because Israel is a damsel in distress,
but because Israel's lack of fidelity to God has landed her in
bondage. She has consorted with the powerful military might of
her time, Babylon, despite Isaiah's warnings that she has made
a covenant with death (28:15), and Babylon has enslaved her people
to its will, carting them into exile.

In Isaiah 62: 11 we are encouraged to focalize the image of
God. God tells the prophet to say to daughter Zion, "see,
your salvation comes; his reward is with him, and his recompense
before him." The notes at the bottom of my Bible describe
whatfollows as the triumphant return of the divine warrior, but
look at what the prophet tells us we see.

Chapter 63 presents the voice
of Israel in this metaphoric drama. We stand waiting and watching
for God's return as the passive beneficiaries of God's heroic
deeds.

Our eyes are turned to the South and from over the horizon
a figure comes into view, "Who is this that comes from Edom,
from Bozrah in garments stained crimson?"

Our first view of the returning divine warrior is of an unrecognizable,
solitary figure in a blood stained robe.

The translators of this passage seem to resist seeing the figure
presented by the Hebrew. In the second line, that typically parallels
the first, they write, "Who is this so splendidly robed,
marching in his great might?"

The Hebrew describes a figure of great strength trudging along,
bent over,