In Numbers, chapter thirty-one, verse three, the Lord speaks to Moses concerning the Midianites. Moses addresses the people in obedience to the divine command from the Lord to avenge the children of Israel to prepare some of six hundred thousand men and upwards, only some of them, and these choose and select men. Good men, who, detesting the sins of indecency and idolatry, would more strictly and severely avenge themselves on the Midianites for drawing their brethren into those sins, whereby they fell. Moses calls the vengeance of the Lord because they were the Lord’s people, and his cause and theirs were the same. However, the sins the children of Israel got themselves into were by the Midianites.
The Lord takes it seriously for those who deceitfully force His people into sin. Especially the corrupt ones that know better but refuse to warn God’s people before causing them to allow iniquity upon themselves. Other groups besides the evil or unbelievers are counterfeits or pretenders in God’s sanctuary. Leaders that are self-called and go to church to do business instead of doing God’s will eventually answer to God. These church leaders are “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
The Midianites did not realize the children of Israel were not just a group of people, but as First Peter two verse nine describes them in full detail. They are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that came out of darkness into the marvelous light. However, the Midianites made some Israelites fall away into iniquity, making them different from what God calls them. Due to sin, that particular group of Israel then was a generation, a priesthood, a nation, regular people that came out of the marvelous light into darkness. Just as many in Israel died because of their sins, so would the Midianites die because they corrupted God’s people.