"13 Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the chiefs of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp. 14 And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war. 15 Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? 16 Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. 17 Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. 18 But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves. 19 Encamp outside the camp seven days. Whoever of you has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day. 20 You shall purify every garment, every article of skin, all work of goats' hair, and every article of wood."
Numbers 31:13-20
But little children? Did God ordain this? There are two or three things that need to be said in this connection. It was not mere wanton brutality. For it was not indiscriminate not all the children were slain, only the males. And they were the future 'Midian', a potential danger and peril for Israel if allowed to grow up. What we must realise is that there is such a thing as national character and national traits and propensities. We speak of such and such a people as being a military people, and as such liable to be warlike and belligerent. So it was with the Midianites. That is the first thing. The second is this: Let us remember something that is near our own time the extirpation of whole cities during the Second World War, by 1000 bomber raids on Germany. Women and innocent children were slaughtered. And we estimated rightly or wrongly that the only way for the German menace to be destroyed was to have done this, when doing this involved innocent civilians, children included. Thirdly, these words from C.S. Lewis, 'I know things in the inner world which are like babies: the infantile beginnings, of small indulgences, small resentments which may one day become dipsomania or settled hatred, but which woo us and wheedle us with special pleadings, and seem so tiny, so helpless, that in resisting them we feel we are being cruel to animals ... kill them, show them no mercy. For they will grow, and rend you, and perhaps destroy you.'
This is the value of the chapter for the spiritual life. Israel's experiences are a 'picture' of Christian pilgrimage. And from this we must learn to 'resist beginnings', however sweet and alluring and charming they may be. They will finally grow into ugly and dangerous enemies.