The Mekhilta presents yet another parable about human warriors, this time addressing the most dangerous flaw of all: uncontrolled rage. A warrior in a province, it says, may become so swayed by wrath and power that he vents his fury even upon his own father and mother and closest relatives. In the heat of battle, the human fighter loses all discrimination. Friend and foe blur together. The rage that makes him deadly on the battlefield makes him deadly to everyone around him.
Not so the Holy One Blessed be He. The verse says: "The Lord is a man of war — the Lord is His name." The Mekhilta reads this as two statements joined together. "The Lord is a man of war" — He fought against the Egyptians with devastating force. But "the Lord is His name" — the divine name (yod-keh-vav-keh) signifies mercy. The same God who destroyed Pharaoh's army simultaneously extended compassion to His own creations.
The proof text is extraordinary: "The Lord, the Lord, the God who is merciful and gracious" (Exodus 34:6). This is the verse revealed to Moses as the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy — and the Mekhilta places it in direct relationship with God's warrior nature.
A human warrior at war cannot also be merciful. The two states are incompatible in a mortal mind. But God fights and shows mercy at the same moment. He destroys the wicked and compassionates His creations in a single breath. This is what it means to be a divine warrior — power without the loss of love, justice without the corruption of rage.