The Blessing of Holy Dissatisfaction in the Christian Life

Joshua, aged and weary after seven years of conquest, faced an arresting truth: his life's work remained incomplete. Yet Maclaren finds in this incompleteness not defeat but a divine principle. The leader had subdued only the central mountain nucleus; Philistia, the maritime plain, Tyre, and Sidon remained unconquered. Still, God commanded him to allot the entire land to the tribes—a command grounded not in present possession but in God's promise: "Them will I drive out before the children of Israel."…