“Moshe said to the people, “Equip men from among yourselves for war. They are to go and fight Midyan, in order to carry out Adonai’s vengeance on Midyan. You are to send to the war a thousand men from every one of Israel’s tribes.” So out of the thousands of people in Israel, a thousand armed men from each tribe, 12,000 altogether, were mustered for war. Moshe sent them, a thousand from each tribe, to the war; he sent them and Pinchas the son of El‘azar the cohen to the war, with the holy utensils and the trumpets for sounding the alarm in his care.“-Numbers 31:3-6
Let’s examine some of the details presented to us in Numbers 31 concerning the Israelite extermination of the cluster of Midianite clans residing in Moabite territory.
First of all, notice the Lord decided to NOT utilize all the 600,000 soldiers of Israel.
Instead, God had Moses order the leaders to handpick 1000 soldiers from each tribe for a total of 12,000 soldiers to do the job.
Second, notice the Lord instructed Phinehas, the son of Eleazar to be the war priest for this battle.
There wasn’t anything unusual about this.
In ancient times, armies usually brought along along priests with them to serve as representatives of the nation’s gods.
Israel was no different in this regard.
But understand that Phinehas was not put in charge of leading the Israelite army.
Again, he was only there to perform priestly duties, kind of like the role a chaplain plays in the military today.
I can’t help but think there’s some special significance in why we’re being told Phinehas had been appointed the War Priest for this campaign.
Remember he was the very man who speared to death the Midianite woman who was having sex with the Israelite man in one of the tents inside the camp of Israel.
It was this action that served as a just atonement that stopped the plague which ended up killing over 24,000 Israelites.
One thing you’ll notice about the war accounts we find in Scripture is that they are quite unique and different from anything you’ll find in all of ancient literature.
There aren’t any dazzling details of how victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat in the nick of time or any individual accounts about some lone wolf hero and his awesome, mind-blowing exploits (well possibly King David is an exception).
In verse 7, we’re simply told the following in a nonchalant matter-of-fact way:
“They fought against Midyan, as Adonai had ordered Moshe, and killed every male.”
And that’s pretty much it.
Nice, sweet, and simple.
How the battle would end was never in doubt.
The Lord was going to go ahead of them and in His own mysterious Godly ways assure the victory for Israel.
The outcome was a done deal before one Israelite soldier ever set foot on the battlefield.
Unlike other secular battles and wars that are not Holy and God-ordained wars like this one was, there NEVER was the possibility of different outcomes.
In a secular battle, it is usually the strategy, tactics or size of the army that determines the results.
However, in a God-ordained holy war, none of that matters.
It doesn’t matter how big an army is (in many cases Israel was super outnumbered).
Nor does it matter what superior strategies or tactics are employed (in one war, God simply had the Israelite soldiers march around a town while blowing their horns).
And it doesn’t matter what type of weapons the enemy possesses (David slew Goliath with one stone and a slingshot).
All that matters is that HASHEM’s soldiers go into battle and in faith behave as God as has ordered.
If that is done, victory is assured.
Now one interesting question that comes up is if victory is guaranteed, why did God even have to use soldiers in the first place to achieve victory?
Why didn’t he just wipe the enemy out supernaturally via a blazing fire or something?
This is just my opinion but I think there are two reasons.
First, I believe God wanted to demonstrate to the enemy that He stands with Israel and that there are dire consequences to pay if you mess with His Chosen People (A fact that I believe is going to soon be demonstrated in incredible power to all the gentile nations of the world).
Second, God also wanted to serve as a witness to His People and strengthen their faith, so that they would learn to trust Him when going into battle to fight their enemies.
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