and Moses said to them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
The army has come back from Midian with plunder and prisoners, and Moses goes out to meet them. His first words are not praise but a question about the captives — and the answer reaches back to Israel's fall at Peor.
Moses met the returning army with anger, not praise.
Moses' anger flared at once. He rebuked them sharply for sparing the women. He reminded them that it was the women of Midian who had seduced the men of Israel through the counsel of Balaam (vv. 14-16). Phinehas ought to have seen what this meant. He had already killed the woman of Midian, and the man of Israel with her, for their corrupt relationship.
The plan traces back to the moment Balaam parted from the man who had hired him.
But before he left the disappointed man who had hired him, it seems the diviner made a vile suggestion to him. If Jehovah could not be turned away from His people, perhaps the people could be turned away from Jehovah! Balaam knew enough of God to be sure of one thing. Tempt the people of Israel into sin, and Jehovah's hand would come down on them in judgment.
Moab's daughters shared in the sin at Peor, so why does the judgment fall on Midian? One writer points to the ties between the two peoples, and to a limit God had set.
Balaam was no doubt a Midianite, and the Moabites and Midianites were closely connected. At first Balak consulted the elders of Midian. Then the elders of both Moab and Midian went together to seek the help of Balaam and his sorceries. … Again we hear the command, "Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites." Why not on the Moabites? But God had said that Israel should not attack Moab (Deut. 2:9). So judgment here does not fall on Moab itself, but it falls without sparing on Midian. Is this not an instance of the discriminating judgment of God, who will have mercy on whom He will?
This campaign was not part of the conquest of Canaan, and Joshua takes no part in it.
By right, the people ought not to have had any occasion to face it at all. It was not one of the wars of Canaan. It was simply the result of their own unfaithfulness — the fruit of their own unholy dealings with the uncircumcised. Joshua, the son of Nun, had been appointed to succeed Moses as leader of the congregation. Yet we find no mention of him at all in connection with this war. Instead, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, is given charge of the expedition. … The point is to wipe away the stain of their unholy association with the enemy. So the man in the foreground is not a general with sword and spear. It is a priest with the holy instruments. And that priest is the very man who first carried out judgment on the evil that now has to be avenged.
The same writer explains what Midian pictures, and why the break had to be total.
The Midianites picture the special influence the world has over the hearts of God's people. It has a fascinating, ensnaring power, which Satan uses to keep us from entering our proper heavenly portion. Israel should have had nothing to do with these Midianites. But in an evil hour, an unguarded moment, they were drawn into association with them. Now nothing remains but war and complete destruction.
Moses' complaint is that the clearing-out was only partial. Israel's orders set the opposite standard.
The daughters of Midian had ensnared the people, through the evil influence of Balaam. Now they are called to clear themselves completely of all the defilement they had picked up through lack of watchfulness. The sword must fall on the Midianites. All the spoil must pass either through the fire of judgment or through the water of purification. Not the smallest part of the evil thing may pass unjudged.
Before God sent Israel against Midian, He had dealt with the same sin inside the camp.
But let us mark this well. Before Jehovah said, "Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites," He had avenged Himself on the people of Israel. … To begin at home is the true and right way. It is a divine principle. It marks God's way here, and it marks His true servant too — in closer communion with Him, in greater zeal for service, and, as in Israel's case, in vengeance on God's enemies.
- The snare — Balaam could not turn God against Israel. So he set out to turn Israel away from God, knowing sin would bring judgment.
- The sparing — The soldiers kept alive the very women who had caused that fall. Phinehas, of all men, should have seen it.
- The rebuke — Moses is angry at a job left half done. Israel had to clear out every trace of the defilement it had picked up.
- The thoroughness — Sword, fire and water leave nothing untouched. Not the smallest part of the evil escapes judgment.
- The order — God judged the sin among His own people first, then avenged them on Midian. To begin at home is His way, and His servant's.
Lo, these, through the counsel of Balaam, caused the children of Israel to commit sin against Jehovah in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague on the assembly of Jehovah.
The women of Midian did the seducing at Peor. This verse names the man behind them: Balaam. Moses says it with the army and its captives standing in front of him. Why did a defeat from chapters earlier still have to be settled by war?
Balak paid Balaam to curse Israel, and he could not. What he did next was a change of method, not of heart.
Before the fortune-teller left the disappointed king who had hired him, he seems to have made a vile suggestion to him. If nothing could turn the LORD away from His people, perhaps something could turn the people away from the LORD! Balaam knew enough of God to be sure of one thing. If the people of Israel could be tempted into sin, the LORD's hand would come down on them in judgment. So Balaam advised Balak to bring out the women and girls of Moab, and set a trap for the all too weak people of the LORD!
Cursing Israel was hopeless from the start. Temptation was another matter.
Balaam could not succeed in enchantment against Israel... He tried to get the LORD to curse His people, but he could not. God forced him only to bless. There is no possibility of using Satan's power against the people of God. God held Balaam's lips and made him bless despite himself. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." He has no power as an adversary. It is as a tempter he has power.
God's mind for His people is separation and purity. That is what Balaam's cunning attacked.
He could not curse them. But he had learned God's purpose, and he was their enemy, so he sought their overthrow by cunning (Num. 31:16). He traps them into evil associations, and God must deal in judgment. From this we learn what the doctrine of Balaam means. It shows one of the great tricks of the devil, and we must be on our guard against it. His constant effort is to bring about mixture where God's clear mind is separation and purity.
The verse ends with the plague among the congregation. The numbers show its scale, and one tribe carried the mark for years.
The people could not be beaten in war. Yet they gave in to the seduction of the Midianite women. Not one man fell in battle against the Amorites, but twenty-four thousand died by the plague God sent in the matter of Baal-peor. The faithfulness of Phinehas turned God's wrath away at that time. Still, the tribe of Simeon long bore witness to what had gone on. Its numbers dropped by more than thirty-seven thousand, as the second census showed when set beside the first.
This war stands apart from every other war Israel fought. Notice who leads it.
Now, this war was what we may call abnormal. By right, the people ought not to have had any occasion to face it at all. It was not one of the wars of Canaan. It was only the result of their own unfaithfulness — the fruit of their own unholy dealings with the uncircumcised nations around them... Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, takes charge of this expedition, and he goes out with the holy instruments and the trumpets. It is a question of wiping away the stain of their unholy association with the enemy. So a priest with the vessels of the sanctuary stands in the foreground, not an officer with sword and spear.
Yet the LORD's command and the words Moses passed on do not match. The difference is deliberate.
When the LORD spoke, He told His servant to avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites. But when Moses spoke, he told the people to avenge the LORD of the Midianites. See how precisely the LORD secures His own glory, and in grace to His people!
The sin at Peor was literal. Commentators say it has a spiritual counterpart for Christians today.
Balaam found that he could not curse Israel. So by his counsel God's people were seduced into sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab... These were the actual sins of the children of Israel. Whatever matches them on the spiritual level will be the teaching of Balaam for Christians. Many scriptures make it clear that spiritual unfaithfulness means alliance with the world.
- Curse blocked. Balak hired Balaam to call down a curse, and God would not let him. Against God's people the enemy has no power as an adversary.
- Counsel substituted. Unable to turn God from Israel, he set out to turn Israel from God, using the women of Midian as the trap.
- Separation broken. The aim was mixture where God had said separation — the trick still called "the teaching of Balaam."
- Plague followed. Twenty-four thousand died. Simeon's numbers at the next census fell by more than thirty-seven thousand.
- Judgment completed. The war of Numbers 31 was not a war of Canaan. It was the fruit of Israel's own unfaithfulness. God called it avenging Israel; Moses called it avenging the LORD.
And now slay every male among the little ones, and slay every woman that hath known man by lying with him,
Numbers 31 closes Moses' public service with an order that still shocks readers: the captives Israel's army brought home from Midian were not to be spared. The reason lies behind the battle, not in it — commentators trace it to Balaam's advice and to what the women of Midian had already done inside Israel's camp.
The soldiers thought they had won. Moses looked at the prisoners and saw the people who had ruined Israel.
Moses' anger flared at once, and he rebuked them sharply for sparing the women. He reminded them that it was the women of Midian who had seduced the men of Israel, following Balaam's advice (vs.14-16). Phinehas should have seen what this meant, for he had already killed the woman of Midian, and the man of Israel with her, for their corrupt relationship.
The command was not blind slaughter. It divided the captives, and it had a stated purpose.
Moses commanded them to kill the young boys and all the women who had been intimate with a man. The other girls could stay alive and be brought into Israel (vs.17-18). Only in this way could Israel guard against contamination. How different is the truth of Christianity, which deals in grace to lead the ungodly to judge themselves and be saved!
One writer ties the sentence on the males to how completely the evil itself had to be dealt with.
But the evil had to be judged thoroughly. "Every male" had to be put to death — everyone in whom the energy of the evil was at work had to be completely wiped out.
This campaign was not one of the battles for Canaan. Writers point out that Joshua, already appointed to lead, is absent from it entirely.
This war was, we might say, out of the ordinary. By rights, the people should never have had to fight it at all. It was not one of the wars of Canaan. It was simply the result of their own unfaithfulness — the fruit of their own unholy dealings with the nations outside Israel. So although Joshua, the son of Nun, had been appointed to succeed Moses as leader of the congregation, we find no mention of him at all in this war. Instead, the command of the expedition goes to Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and he sets out "with the holy instruments and the trumpets."
God and Moses each described the campaign — and each named the other party as the one wronged.
When Jehovah spoke, He told His servant to avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites; but when Moses spoke, he told them to avenge the LORD on Midian. How exactly Jehovah secures His own glory, and in grace to His people! Jehovah thought of the children of Israel, and the children of Israel would think of Jehovah. It was one common interest — Jehovah and Israel had at heart one and the same thing.
The same thoroughness reaches the metal, cloth and cattle in the verses that follow.
The women of Midian had trapped the people by their schemes, under the evil influence of Balaam the son of Peor. Now the people are called to clear themselves completely of all the defilement they had picked up by failing to keep watch. The sword must fall on the Midianites. All the spoil must pass either through the fire of judgement or through the water of purification. Not the smallest scrap of the evil thing may go unjudged.
Critics have long used the severity of this chapter as an argument against Scripture. One writer replied to a critic who objected to this very campaign.
Midian had been the means of corrupting Israel and leading them into idolatry, so that twenty-five thousand Israelites fell in the plague God sent. And it came about through the unspeakable wickedness of Balaam. When he could not curse Israel, he advised Balak to lead them into sin, and then God could not bless them. God punished them for this, and destroyed them as a settled nation there… The question is not one of history, but of the whole ways and dealings of God in judgment.
A second answer asks who passed the sentence, and who only carried it out.
It was righteous vengeance on earth. It was not wrath from heaven, and still less was it grace reigning through righteousness as in the gospel… The vengeance was not Israel's but God's, and He chose to make His people the ones who carried out His judgment.
One writer turns this chapter into a warning about alliance with the world.
Our proper business is to pass through the world as pilgrims and strangers… But we fail to keep this clear separation. We let ourselves be drawn into alliance with the world, and so we get caught up in trouble and conflict that never belonged to us at all. War with Midian formed no part of Israel's proper work. They had to thank themselves for it. But God is gracious… God, in His infinite goodness, brings good out of evil.
- Cause. The order goes back to Balaam's advice and to the women of Midian who seduced Israel. It punished a named crime.
- Purpose. Contamination drew the line among the captives. This was the only way to keep the source of Israel's ruin out of the camp.
- Authority. Israel swung the sword, but the sentence was God's. The vengeance was His, not the nation's.
- Thoroughness. Nothing the evil had touched escaped. Captives, metal and cloth all had to pass through judgement or purification first.
- Warning. The war was avoidable. It grew out of Israel's alliance with the world around them, and that alliance still brings trouble today.