Numbers 31:49 and said to him, “Your servants have counted the soldiers under our command, and not one is missing.”
One of the most difficult tasks of any officer in the military is making death notifications. I hated them. As a Chaplain, I had to do too many for my liking. Having to be there when the worst possible news is delivered. No one would choose this for a job.
So every day that I was on the roster for notification duty was a day I dreaded. Before I entered the military, I had already been at the bedside of several hundred people as their loved ones said their final goodbyes. Everyone from premature babies to triple digit elders and everyone in between. Accidents and the natural consequences of choices made. Gun shots. Auto accidents. Fireworks. War injuries.
So as I read our text for today I am torn. The report from the officers after the first official battle to take ground that Israel would occupy is that no one died! Oh how I had experienced more of those days. But I carry those griefs even to this day. They weigh heavy on my soul.
So as these officers have made a count of the soldiers they have taken into battle, a bunch of slave descendants who have been wandering in the dessert for forty years, this is truly a miracle. They are not a trained fighting force. The only reason they won is because of the LORD’s presence with them.
How easily we forget this in our own lives. They certainly forgot this in theirs. Just before their wanderings began almost forty years earlier, they had thought they could go into battle without the LORD and many paid the price with their lives.
Can you imagine the relief on these commander’s hearts when the count came back complete? There would be no mothers or wives that needed to be notified. No children left without fathers. The table chairs would be filled, none empty in remembrance. No need for a monument in the town square with the names of the deceased carved in stone.
Instead, we have this simple verse. And the response of the commanders: they gave their own portion of gold captured as a thanksgiving offering to the LORD. They gave up the best of the spoils of war as a way to say thank you to the One who had won the victory on their behalf.
The best leaders give credit where credit is due. They pass along the medals to their subordinates. They make sure those who actually did the fighting and bravely defended the positions get the credit.
But in this case, it was the LORD instead of the soldiers who made the difference! The only medals given were those given to the LORD. It was His battle.
If only they could have captured this lesson and carried it forward into the rest of the battles to come. They start off pretty well, except for Achan who keeps for himself some of the things he is to give to the LORD. Maybe he missed this current history lesson before he went into battle.
The cost for his selfishness in that moment, thirty six men died and the army was routed. If only Achan could have followed the example of these officers in our text. If he had been thankful for what he had, and not coveted what he couldn’t have, he would have lived a long life. Instead, he ended up under a pile of stones as a memorial to what not to do in battle.
The Arnold Journey 