"Ish Milchamah."
 
As I was finishing up the painting of the Ox, representing the Lord as the "Servant" prophesied by Isaiah, I felt drawn by the Lord to read the next section of Isaiah's prophecy and little did I know that God was leading me to another aspect of His nature that He was wanting me to put on canvas - "Man of War."
 
After prophesying of the meekness of the Lord's coming Servant, Isaiah suddenly switches gears and begins to describe the coming of a mighty Warrior:
 
"The Lord will go forth like a warrior, He will stir up His zeal like a man of war; He will shout out, yes. He will raise a war cry. He will prevail [mightly] against His enemies." Isaiah 42:13 AMP
 
As if in unison, Nahum prophesies the same picture of our Lord as a warring King:
 
"The Lord is a jealous and avenging God [protecting  and demanding what is rightfully and uniquely His]; The Lord avenges and He is full of wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust beneath His feet." Nahum 1:2-3 AMP
 
With these images swirling in my head, I began to envision the Lord's soon coming return once again, this time with Him astride His white horse with the Lion of Judah looming in the background. I distinctly saw a sword cutting through the middle of this scene, dividing the sheep from the goats as described in Matthew 25:31-33
 
"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory and majesty and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him [for judgment]; and He will separate them from one another, as a shepherd separates His sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left."
 
It was also about this time that I stumbled upon a word given to a prophetic voice, Wanda Alger, and what she received from the Lord confirmed to me the timing and significance of this visual which God gave me.
 
"You think Me a tame God? You think My meekness and humility My only attributes?  I tell you, in these days you shall see aspects of My character and My name that you have not yet seen.
You are going to see the Man of War that I AM, for I have not come to bring peace, but to bring the sword with which to rightly divide the sheep from the goats, the true from the counterfeit, and the religious from the pure in heart.&nbs