Joshua's conquest was very partial. He subdued part of the central
mountain nucleus, but the low-lying stretch of country on the coast,
Philistia and the maritime plain up to Tyre and Sidon and other
outlying districts, remained unsubdued. Yet the whole land was now to
be allotted out to the tribes. That allotment must have strengthened
faith in their ultimate possession, and encouraged effort to make the
ideal a reality, and to appropriate as their own in fact what was
already theirs in God's purpose. So a great part of Christian duty, and
a great secret of Christian progress, is to familiarise ourselves with
the hope of complete victory. We should acquire the habit of
contemplating as certainly meant by God to be ours, complete conformity
to Christ's character, complete appropriation of Christ's gifts. God
bade Jeremiah buy a 'field that was in Anathoth' at the time an
invading army held the land. A Roman paid down money for the ground on
which the besiegers of Rome were encamped. It does not become
Christians to be less confident of victory. But we have to take heed
that our confidence is grounded on the right foundation. God's
commandment to Joshua to allot the land, even while the formidable foes
enumerated in the context held it firmly, was based on the assurance
(verse 6): 'Them will I drive out before the children of Israel.'
Confidence based on self is presumption, and will end in defeat;
confidence based on God will brace to noble effort, which is all the
more vigorous and will surely lead to victory, because it distrusts
self.