Gratitude, Atonement, and the Spoils of a Holy War Text: Numbers 31:48-54
Introduction: The Scandal of God's Preservation
We live in an age that is deeply offended by the Old Testament. Our modern sensibilities, which are really just ancient sins with better marketing, recoil from the stories of holy war. We read of the judgment on the Midianites, and our therapeutic culture clutches its pearls. We want a God who is a celestial guidance counselor, not a divine warrior. We want a Jesus who is meek and mild, but not the Jesus who returns with a sword coming out of His mouth to strike the nations. But the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the same God who commanded Israel to execute His righteous judgment on a culture that was sexually corrupt, idolatrous, and actively seeking to seduce and destroy God's covenant people.
The previous verses in this chapter describe a brutal conflict. It was a war of judgment, and it was total. But our text today does not focus on the fighting. It focuses on the aftermath, the accounting, and the astonishing outcome. And in this outcome, we find a profound theological truth that is just as scandalous to our modern ears as the command to go to war in the first place. The scandal is the absolute, sovereign, meticulous preservation of God's people in the midst of His righteous judgments.
Our passage is about the response of the commanders of Israel's army when they discover this preservation. Their response is not triumphalism. It is not arrogant pride. It is astonishment, gratitude, and a deep-seated recognition that they needed atonement. This is a pattern for us. When God grants us victory, whether in a personal struggle with sin, a cultural battle, or in the great commission, our response must be one of humble gratitude that drives us to the cross. We must see that every victory is a gift of grace, and every gift of grace should remind us of our need for the ultimate grace, the atonement accomplished by Jesus Christ.
This passage teaches us about the relationship between God's perfect preservation, our grateful response, and the true meaning of atonement. It is a picture of how God's grace in warfare should lead directly to worship.
The Text
Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, came near to Moses, and they said to Moses, "Your servants have taken a census of men of war who are in our charge, and no man of us is missing. So we have brought near as an offering to Yahweh what each man found, articles of gold, armlets and bracelets, signet rings, earrings and necklaces, to make atonement for ourselves before Yahweh." And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all kinds of crafted articles. And all the gold from the contribution offering which they raised up in offering to Yahweh, from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, was 16,750 shekels. The men of war had taken plunder, every man for himself. So Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and they brought it to the tent of meeting as a memorial for the sons of Israel before Yahweh.
(Numbers 31:48-54 LSB)
The Astonishing Report (v. 48-49)
We begin with the approach of the military leaders to Moses.
"Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, came near to Moses, and they said to Moses, 'Your servants have taken a census of men of war who are in our charge, and no man of us is missing.'" (Numbers 31:48-49)
The battle is over. The judgment has been executed. The purification rituals have been completed. Now comes the accounting. The commanders, the leaders of thousands and hundreds, come before Moses. They have done a headcount. They have mustered the troops and counted every single man who went out to fight. And their report is nothing short of miraculous. "No man of us is missing."
Let this sink in. Twelve thousand men went into battle against the combined forces of the Midianites, and not one of them was killed. Not one casualty. This is not a normal outcome of war. This is a supernatural preservation. This is God demonstrating in the most unambiguous way possible that this was His battle. As He would later say through the prophet, "the battle is not yours, but God's" (2 Chron. 20:15). God did not just give them victory; He gave them a victory so complete and so bloodless on their side that no one could possibly mistake who was responsible.
This is a profound illustration of the doctrine of preservation. God does not just save His people; He keeps His people. He preserves them. Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand" (John 10:27-28). The Father gives the sheep to the Son, and the Son loses none of them. Here, in the plains of Moab, we see a physical picture of this spiritual reality. The men of war were given into the charge of their commanders, and the commanders report back to Moses, the mediator, that none are missing. So also, on the last day, the great Captain of our salvation, the Lord Jesus, will present all those given to Him by the Father and say, "Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none" (John 18:9).
This perfect preservation was not because of their skill in battle or the weakness of the enemy. It was a direct, sovereign act of God's covenant faithfulness. He sent them to do His will, and He protected them in the doing of it.
The Grateful Offering for Atonement (v. 50)
The commanders' response to this miracle is immediate and deeply theological.
"So we have brought near as an offering to Yahweh what each man found, articles of gold, armlets and bracelets, signet rings, earrings and necklaces, to make atonement for ourselves before Yahweh." (Numbers 31:50 LSB)
Their first thought is not to have a parade. It is not to erect a statue to their own military genius. Their first thought is to make an offering to Yahweh. And notice the stated purpose of this offering: "to make atonement for ourselves." This strikes the modern reader as odd. Atonement for what? They were obedient. They fought the battle God commanded. They were victorious. And not one of them died. What sin did they commit that required atonement?
This is where we must think like Hebrews and not like modern individualists. They understood something that we have largely forgotten: even in our most righteous acts, we are still sinners in need of a covering. Even in obedience, our motives are mixed. In the heat of battle, who knows what sins of heart were committed? Sins of pride, of bloodlust, of greed. They had just been instruments of God's wrath, and such a task is perilous for sinful men. They recognized that to be brought so near to the raw holiness of God's judgment was to be exposed in their own sinfulness. Their perfect preservation did not make them arrogant; it made them aware of their own unworthiness. It was God's kindness that led them to repentance.
Furthermore, the word for atonement here is kippur, which has the sense of "to cover." They are not trying to buy forgiveness. They are acknowledging their sinfulness in the presence of a holy God and seeking His gracious covering. They are bringing the spoils of war, the gold taken from the enemy, and dedicating it to God as a ransom, a covering for their souls. This is a beautiful picture of the gospel. The wages of sin is death, but in Christ, a ransom has been paid. And here, these soldiers, fresh from a victory where not one of them died, are confessing that they deserved to die. Their preservation was not something they earned; it was a grace that covered them, and they respond by bringing a symbolic covering to the Lord.
The Reception and Weight of the Offering (v. 51-53)
Moses and Eleazar accept this offering on behalf of the Lord, and the sheer amount is recorded.
"And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all kinds of crafted articles. And all the gold from the contribution offering which they raised up in offering to Yahweh, from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, was 16,750 shekels. The men of war had taken plunder, every man for himself." (Genesis 31:51-53 LSB)
The offering is received by the mediator and the priest, which is the proper channel. All our offerings to God must come through our Mediator and High Priest, the Lord Jesus. The amount is staggering. 16,750 shekels is over 400 pounds of gold. This was not a token gesture. This was a costly, significant act of worship born out of profound gratitude.
The text makes a point to distinguish this offering from the rest of the plunder. Verse 53 notes that "The men of war had taken plunder, every man for himself." According to the rules God laid out earlier in the chapter, the soldiers were entitled to half of the spoils. This offering from the commanders was a voluntary contribution, over and above what was required. It was a freewill offering. This is what grace does. Grace does not calculate the minimum requirement. Grace overflows in extravagant generosity. When a man understands what he has been saved from, and the grace that has preserved him, his response is not "What's the least I can do?" but rather, "What is the most I can do?"
This is the principle of plundering the Egyptians. When God delivers His people, He enriches them with the wealth of their enemies. But that wealth is not ultimately for our own consumption. It is to be consecrated and used for the building of His kingdom, for the furnishing of His tabernacle. These golden articles, once used for pagan adornment and idolatry, are now being brought into the service of Yahweh. This is a postmillennial picture in miniature. As the gospel advances through the nations, the wealth of the nations, their art, their music, their resources, will be brought as tribute to King Jesus and consecrated for His use.
A Memorial Before Yahweh (v. 54)
Finally, we are told the ultimate purpose and destination of this golden offering.
"So Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and they brought it to the tent of meeting as a memorial for the sons of Israel before Yahweh." (Numbers 31:54 LSB)
The gold was brought into the Tent of Meeting, into the presence of God. And there it served as a "memorial." A memorial is something that helps you remember. But who was this memorial for? It was "for the sons of Israel before Yahweh." It was to cause Yahweh to remember His people.
Now, this does not mean that the omniscient God is forgetful. In biblical language, for God to "remember" His people is for Him to act on their behalf according to His covenant promises. When God remembered Noah, He sent the wind to dry up the waters. When God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He sent Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt. This golden offering, sitting in the tabernacle, was a perpetual reminder, a testimony before God of His own gracious act of preservation and His people's grateful response. It was a tangible sign of the covenant relationship. It testified that God had been faithful to preserve them, and they, in turn, were acknowledging their dependence on Him for atonement and life.
This points us directly to the work of Christ. Jesus is our ultimate memorial before the Father. His presence at the right hand of God is the perpetual reminder of the atonement He accomplished. The Father looks upon the Son and "remembers" His covenant of grace. He acts on our behalf, not because of some golden trinkets we offer, but because of the infinitely precious blood of His own Son. Our High Priest has not entered a tent made with hands, but heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us (Hebrews 9:24). He is our memorial.
Conclusion: Our Only Atonement
So what do we take from this? First, we must see that our God is a God who preserves His people. In the midst of a world at war with God, in the midst of spiritual battles, He keeps us. Not one of His elect will be missing on the final day. Our salvation is secure not because we hold on to Him, but because He holds on to us.
Second, the proper response to this gracious preservation is not pride, but profound gratitude that recognizes our own unworthiness. The more we understand God's grace, the more we should understand our need for atonement. The victory God gives us in Christ should not lead to self-congratulation, but to the foot of the cross, confessing that even our best works are tainted with sin and need to be covered by the blood of Jesus.
Finally, our gratitude must take tangible form. It must result in a freewill offering of our lives, our resources, our "gold," back to God. We take the plunder from the world system that God has defeated through the cross, and we consecrate it to His service as a memorial of His goodness. We do this knowing that these offerings do not purchase our atonement. Rather, they are the grateful response to the atonement that has already been purchased for us by our great High Priest.
The commanders of Israel brought 400 pounds of gold to cover their souls. But we know that we are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, "but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:18-19). He is our victory, He is our preservation, and He is our atonement. And because not one of us will be missing in the end, let us bring the plunder of our lives and lay it at His feet, a memorial of gratitude before our God forever.