Numbers 31:54 - Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary

I class all these verses together, because they are connected in the history, and because the improvements they suggest are all united. We have in them the pious reflections of the officers in Israel's army, on the event of their victory over their enemies; and the grateful acknowledgement they offered in consequence thereof to the LORD. Reader! do observe; they did not ascribe the victory to their own sword, but they saw the hand of the LORD in it; and therefore to him gave all the glory. There is a similar example of this, Psalms 44:1-8. But this was not all. They beheld the preservation of themselves and their people from all danger, in the accomplishing this victory, as the peculiar interposition and mercy of GOD. And to be sure, nothing could be more decisive in confirmation of it, for when they came to muster up the people, there was not a single man wanting. Never perhaps, in the annals of the world, was there ever known such an instance. They saw, therefore, as a saint of GOD did upon another occasion, that this was the LORD'S doing, and marvellous in their eyes. Psalms 118:23. But when the Reader hath duly pondered over the natural and religious sense of this event, I would beg him to consider again the spiritual meaning, whether this first battle in the conquest of the promised land, in which not a soul was lost, was not typical of JESUS'S conquest of the eternal Canaan, concerning which he himself remarked, of them which thou hast given me have I lost none. John 18:9. The offering of the officers to the LORD is a delightful testimony from whom they consider the blessing of victory came, and to whom therefore ought to be returned the tribute of praise. What a sweet and precious example is this for all military characters.