The Holy War of the Israelites

Moses tells the people to get ready for war, to arm men so they can go out to war against the Midianites. They take with them the holy vessels and the trumpets for sounding the alarm. This was basically the way in which God went to battle with the Israelites because the Ark of the Covenant was his footstool or you can think of it as his throne. So this was a true holy war in the sense that what they were doing was fulfilling the Lord's declaration against these peoples.