Caleb's Daughter Achsah {Nameless}
Unlike the other ladies in our nameless series, our lady in focus today is actually named! I wanted to include her in the series, because I’d never heard her name until we went through Joshua during the very first summer study*. I’m writing about her here in the hopes she will no longer be nameless to you, as she is no longer to me.
Achsah is the only daughter of Caleb, one of the two spies who had faith in God and advocated for the Israelites to go into the promised land, despite the intimidating adversaries who occupied it. I’d encourage you to read the story in Numbers 12-13. Caleb was known as a man wholly devoted to God, so much so, that God gave him a special inheritance, which included part of the tribe of Judah’s lands (Joshua 14:6-15.) In Joshua 15:13-19, we come to the story of Achsah. Caleb promises her in marriage to whoever conquered the inhabitants of a place in the region named Kirath-sepher, also known as Debir. Othniel emerges victorious and wins the hand of Achsah.
It might be tempting to think Achsah did not have a voice in this, if not for the following sentences. Let’s go slow motion through the next several verses. Scripture says she urged Othniel, her new husband, for a field from her father. (v18)
Then things get real. She gets off her donkey.
This gets the attention of Caleb who asks “What do you want?”
She replies “Give me a blessing. Since you have given me the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.”
We don’t know if there was any more to their exchange. If there was, Scripture doesn’t record it, but we do know the outcome. In verse 19, Joshua writes Caleb “gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.”
As I’m reading this in my house, I can walk about 20 paces to get to water. We have it so easy. Water in Achsah’s time, in a purely agricultural society without the technology we have today to transport water, is vital. These springs are not just a hot commodity; they were life. They would irrigate her field. They would feed her family. Caleb did not hold back. He gave her not one, but two of these springs! The gift Achsah’s father gave her was life, and life abundantly.
Sound familiar?
Jesus said this in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Now, some who have written on Achsah say she was a discontent daughter who just wouldn’t leave well enough alone. They say she was greedy. She not only got a gallant husband, but a field, and not one, but two springs! Never satisfied.
When we receive this water and own our identity as a daughter of the most worthy and good Father, we will have the confidence to come before Him to ask for everything we need.
I may be wrong here, but I beg to differ on this interpretation. It isn’t a far leap to put ourselves in the position of Achsah, because in Christ, our stories are the same! I am Achsah, and so are you! We are the daughters of a good (the best!) and devoted Father. He is worthy of our trust, and He has our good and His glory in mind. He has given us an inheritance (1 Peter 1:3-5) and He has made us His children and fellow co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17.) He tells us to ask Him for what we need, as He is a father who gives good gifts (Matthew 7:7-12.)
And the good gift we receive from our Father is a spring of abundant and eternal life. To another nameless woman of the Bible, Jesus says “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)
When we receive this water and own our identity as a daughter of the most worthy and good Father, we will have the confidence to come before Him to ask for everything we need. We won’t be shy. We will get off our own donkeys and approach Him. We will draw near to ask and receive everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3.)
Is it hard for you to ask God for His springs? Perhaps you see Him as stingy. Or maybe you are holding back because you have not yet fully comprehended His love for you, that overcame death to bring you life.
As we like to say here at Dayton Women in the Word, Jesus is the true and better. He is the true and better Caleb. He is offering us His grace, His life. So now we draw near with confidence of His goodness and provision as Achsah did her father.
I invite you to stop, get off your own donkey, ask boldly, and receive. Isn’t it ironic that in our own English language, Achsah sounds kind of like “ask?” I hope this helps you remember her story, and encourage you that with a simple ask, it can become your own.
*Listen to the lecture from week 8 of the DWITW Joshua summer study to learn more about Achsah.
Jillian Vincent loves Jesus. She's a wife, a mother of boys, and a Dayton enthusiast. Jillian currently is a stay at home mama and spends nap times writing and discipling other women. She would (almost) die for an avocado, a cup of coffee made by her husband, a novel that makes her cry, and a bouquet of sunflowers.