[A Meditation on One Verse]

(Joshua 15:19) “She replied, ‘Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me also springs of water.’ So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.”

According to the promise, Caleb’s daughter Achsah marries Othniel and receives the Negeb land from her father as an inheritance. However, the Negeb was a dry wilderness where life could not survive without water. Therefore, Achsah boldly goes to her father and requests, “Give me a blessing… give me springs of water also.”

This is not greed. It is a wise plea that the promised land given by her father would not remain a barren reality, but become a land of blessing bearing the fruit of life. We might have asked for more fertile land. But she asked not for ‘better circumstances,’ but for the ‘life’ to live out her given circumstances.

To her, father Caleb gives both the upper and lower springs. In the father’s act of giving life overflowingly to the child who asks for life, we see the heart of our Heavenly Father.

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13)

Achsah’s image is precisely that of the church walking the wilderness path. To ask not for better circumstances, but for the holy life to live in the place we face today—this is our privilege as we live out the gospel each day.

This morning, with the heart of Achsah, we pray:

“Lord, today, help us to ask not for better circumstances, but for You alone. Pour out the grace of the upper and lower springs into our lives, that we may enjoy abundant life in You.”
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(Daily Reading)

Joshua 15:13-63