The conflict (Num 31:1-12); the corrective (vv 13-18); the cleansing (vv 19-20); the cache (vv 21-54).
The latter part of Numbers 31 describes how Israel was to use the plunder of war. Booty is used for livestock and spoil for treasure (v 12). There is no description of the battle, but it clearly was a supernatural victory. A thousand men from each tribe (v 4)? Judah alone had 76,500 fighting men! But from the very start, God let His people know that He was their secret weapon. Once they had the victory, certain steps were taken. The Lord wanted His soldiers not only to be courageous, but clean (v 24). Even the spoils were purified! “Everything that can endure fire, you shall put through the fire, and it shall be clean” (Num 31:23). Similarly with us, “the fire will test each one’s work” (1 Cor 3:13). In grace, both combatants and civilians shared the plunder (Num 31:27), and of course God, the true Victor, got His portion, too (vv 28-29). To celebrate that “not a man…is missing,” the officers gladly donated to the cause (vv 48-50). Do these apply to us today? Well, yes! The New Testament explains that our battles are different, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against…the rulers of the darkness of this age” (Eph 6:12), but they are battles just the same. The taking of Jericho emphasized the element of faith. Gideon’s use of light in clay pots reveals the secret of brokenness since “we have this treasure [in the context, that’s light] in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Cor 4:7). And Deborah and Barak’s descent in weakness is the precursor before they, and Christ, “ascended on high,…led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men” (Eph 4:8; Ps 68:18; Jdg 5:12). These Old Testament tactics illustrate how we are to fight today—so we get the victory and God gets the glory!