Num 31:1 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Num 31:2 “Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.”
Num 31:3 So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the LORD’s vengeance on Midian.
Num 31:4 You shall send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war.”
Num 31:5 So there were provided, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
All who, without commission from God, dare to execute private revenge, and who, from ambition, covetousness, or resentment, wage war and desolate kingdoms, must one day answer for it. But if God, instead of sending an earthquake, a pestilence, or a famine, be pleased to authorize and command any people to avenge his cause, such a commission surely is just and right. The Israelites could show such a commission, though no persons now can do so. Their wars were begun and carried on expressly by Divine direction, and they were enabled to conquer by miracles. Unless it can be proved that the wicked Canaanites did not deserve their doom, objectors only prove their dislike to God, and their love to his enemies. Man makes light of the evil of sin, but God abhors it. This explains the terrible executions of the nations which had filled the measure of their sins. (Henry)
Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites,…. For the injury they had done them, by sending their daughters among them, who enticed them to commit uncleanness with them, and then drew them into the worship of their idols, which brought the wrath of God upon them, and for which 24,000 persons were slain. (Gill)
The emphasis is on the fact that the LORD spoke to Moses in initiating this attack. This wasn’t about personal revenge, the conquest of territory, or the lust for plunder. “The war is announced by the Lord, not Moses. The war was not regarded by Moses as motivated by petty jealousy. It was ‘the Lord’s vengeance’ because of the wickedness of the Midianites, who caused the seduction of the Israelites in the pagan worship system of Baal of Peor.” (Allen)
In this circumstance, Israel was in a unique role – with a special call to be an instrument of God’s vengeance upon the varied people of and near Canaan. This is something no individual, acting on their own authority, can rightly take upon themselves today. There is also no community defined as the people of God (such as a church congregation or denomination) that has the same unique place that ancient Israel had in God’s plan. (This was something God called Israel to do together as a people, not just a few individual tribes. God wanted them to think and act as a unified people, despite their tribal differences. Guzik)
