The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 279

l. TDE GREATNESS OF DUTY AND THE LIMITS OF TIME TOGETHER URGE UPON US THE NEED FOR DILIGENT Sl!:RVICE. (1) We must not postpone the commencement of work. Joshua began to serve God in his youth ; yet his work was not finished in his old age. (2) We must not be satisfied with any amount of work done. Joshua lmd accomplished great things, but much remained undone. (3) We must not be willing to work at intervals or with wastefulness of time. The work of life is too great for the longest, most earnest life. Time is short ; the day of work will soon pass. "Work while it is day" (John ix. 4). II. IN Goo's SIGHT THAT LIFE IS FINISHED WHICH HAS ACCOMPLISHED ALL WITHIN ITS POWER. Life is long enough for all that God requires of us. We may not be able to do all we wish, all we set before ourselves, all that appears to be needed, all that we think it our duty to do. But God apportions our duty according to our opportunities. Therefore in His eyes the broken, unfinished life is really :finished if all is done for which opportunities have been given. III. Goo JUDGES us BY FAITHFULNESS, NOT BY SUCCESS, It is not they who effect much, but they who serve truly, whom God accepts. We cannot co=and success. The finishing of our work is not in our hands. We can be faithful (Luke xvi. 10). IV. THE UNFINISHED EARTHLY LIFE IS A PROPHECY OF A FUTURE LIFE. Our aspirations exceed our capacities. It is not simply that we desire the unattainable ; but we are conscious of duties which reach beyond present opportunities, and of possibilities within us which the limits of life prevent us from developing. If God is too wise to waste His gifts ancl too good to deceive His children, we may take the broken life, and still more the incomplete life even of old age, as mute prophecies of a larger life beyond. v. IN THE FUTURE LIFE THERE WILL BE NO OLD AGE. The pain of decliuing powers, of insufficient time, and of all other limits of earthly life will be gone. Eternity will give leisure for all service. The eternal life will not grow old, but flourish in perpetual youth. Vl, IT IS A PROVIDENTIAL BLESSING THA.T GREAT MEN SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO FINISH THE WORK THEY SET BEFORE THEMSELVES. It is well that they should leave work for smaller men. The necessity thus created becomes a stimulus to others. When one falls, another is raised to continue his work (John iv. 37, 38). VII. No MAN FULFILS EVEN SO MUCH OF LIFE'S WORK AS COMES WITHIN HIS POWEHS. At best we are unprofitable servants ; .but we are all also negligent and slothful. We have left undone many things which we ought to have done. None of us can say with Christ, '' It is finished." Therefore we should review our lives _with humility, contrition, and repentance, seeking forgiveness for the failings of the past and more grace for the duties of the future. VIII. CHRIST'S WORK ALONE IS TBE GROUND OF ACCEPTANCE BY Goo. Our work is unfinished. It is faulty for the negligence it proves. It can earn us nothing on its own merits. Christ's wo,:k is finished. On this our faith can rest. Then we may offer our own imperfect work to God through Christ, and He will trans- form it for us by lifting it into the light of His merits, till it will be worthy as dust shines like gold when the sunbeam passes through it.-W. F. A. . Vers. 2, 7.-The land allotted, though not yet secured. "There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." "Now therefore divide this lnnd for an inherit- ance "-form a somewhat strange pair of precepts. It seems as if Joshua was dividing what he had not got ; and as if Israel were casting lots rathe1· for perils than property. It is not quite so extreme as this. The point in the conquest was reached when nowhere was there a resistance needing a nation in anns to quell it. The several tribes were each strong enough to make goou. the conquest of their several heritages. 'rhe wor~ of the ~ation as a nation was over. T~~ work of ea~h tribe had now to begin. Still there 1s some of the grandelll of a D1vme method m giving us something that still needs conquering; enri~hing us with something for which some fighting still requires to be done. Look at 1t. ' J. Goo's OIFTS ,\RE_ GENl:RAI,LY BJ\LF·B0LDING ,\ND HALF-HOPE. All He imparts 224 THE DOOK OF JOSHUA. [en. xm. 1-88.