An Executive Decision.
We're finding ourselves in the middle of multiple wars stretching from Parashat Balak to Pinchas. These are bloody times and HaShem is handing out the orders like a real Commander in Chief. Am Israel is easily derailed by an army of beautiful women throwing themselves at them on the condition that they worship Peor. Orders are given to kill 25,000 Jewish souls as punishment and a plaque comes over Am Israel. In the midst of all this Pinchas kills Zimri, an Israelite and Kosbi, a Medianite princess in one strike by using a spear.
Besides the fact that killing two people in one swoop with a spear requires enormous control over the weapon - our Sages say that when a man does a mitzvah, HaShem helps him finishing it - Pinchas takes the Wrath of HaShem in his own hands. Rashi explains this (ibid) as Pinchas taking the place of HasShem - "…when in fact I (HaShem) should have been angry."
Pinchas acted on his own. In the midst of a war, one man's action to kill two people without a trial and seemingly without hesitation, becomes a blessing. Even Moses doubts this and considers punishment, but it is God who immediately recognizes the deed as His own by speaking to Moshe and re-introducing Pinchas as the son of Eleazar and the son of Aaron the Priest, as if to set a new place in history for Pinchas.
Next, HaShem continues to protect Pinchas in an amazing way; first He says: "..he (Pinchas) turned my Wrath away from Bnei Israel"… - clearly stating that Pinchas has also saved lives with his act of vengeance. The plague stopped when Pinchas killed. Then, HaShem says: "…he was zealous for My sake among them…," as if to say that Pinchas set an example.
The Sages weren't happy with the violence Pinchas displayed. Some wanted to excommunicate him. Rabbi Baruch Epstein (Torah Temimah) explains the reaction of the Sages this way: They, the Sages, understood that such an act of extreme violence under the flag of 'zealotry' had to be completely pure to be allowed. How could they know that Pinchas did not have another reason to have done this? Did Pinchas hide behind HaShem to commit murder?
But it must have been with the purest of commitment to HaShem otherwise why does God reward Pinchas with "…My covenant of peace…"? Abravanel is quick to say that it was a form of protection against Zimri's next-of-kin's wrath. Yet, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Berlin in his Ha'amek Davar states: …"a covenant of peace constitutes rather a guarantee of protection against the inner enemy, lurking inside the zealous perpetrator of the sudden deed, against the inner demoralization that such an act as the killing of a human being, without due process of law is liable to cause."
As Commander in Chief in time of war, God judges Pinchas quickly and decisively. In a way Pinchas allows the War to continue without the unnecessary hold-ups and failings of Am Israel. It's back to business! Mercessly HaShem commands Moses to "harass" the Midianites and "smite" them. Just like the Amalekites whom the Israelites were ordered to "kill", we now get the order to "harass" a people. Rashi find the prostituting of one's daughters enough of a reason, while Nachmanides states that it was the Midianites who constituted the idea to lure the Israelites into the arms of the daughters of Moab.
The difference between Amalek and Midian is perhaps that Amalek threatened Israel physically while Median threatened the soul of Israel.
If that can be said, then Pinchas stopped this by his act of violence. Not only did he translate HaShem's wrath, but he also stopped the deterioration of Am Israel. And so, his violence became an enormously important mitzvah follow by an Executive Decision from above. Pinchas received the silver star not withstanding the complaints from literally everyone around him. Even Moshe Rabbenu.
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