“Ask and it shall be given” (Matthew 7:7)
Achsah’s Audacious Request
Over the past several months, I have been challenged to ask for big things. There is one particular ask that I have been avoiding and I am glad to report that today, I had the courage to make the request three times. I was inspired and challenged by the story of Caleb’s daughter as told in Judges 1 and Joshua 15.
LIKE FATHER LIKE DAUGHTER. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. In ancient Israel and other cultures, women rarely inherited or owned land, but Caleb’s only daughter Achsah did so! Caleb’s spirit had infiltrated his family.
In Joshua 15, we learn that Caleb did not defeat the greatest giants of the land by himself. He did it with the help of his family. Caleb was an incredible strategist and issued a challenge. He proclaimed that the man who conquered Kiriatharba would get to marry his daughter Achsah as his reward.
In response to this challenge, his nephew Othniel slew that giant and won himself a beautiful bride. Legend has it that Achsah was exceedingly beautiful. However, as courageous as Othniel was, it seemed to ask Caleb for more land was unthinkable.
Achsah had received as her dowry a portion of land in the Southern region (a desert area), but she wanted more. She, therefore, asked her husband to petition her father Caleb for springs to irrigate her land.
Othniel perhaps was afraid, so Achsah fearlessly but respectfully and boldly made the request herself.
Surprisingly, her father graciously granted her request in excess of what she asked.
Achsah ended up with the upper and lower springs in the Negev. Achsah became a prosperous woman because of her courage to ask for the extraordinary.
She followed in the footsteps of her father, who at 85 years of age asked for his mountain and got it!
There are scholars who say that Achsah was greedy and perhaps she was. But she got an inheritance befitting of her future position as the wife of the next leader in Israel. After Joshua’s death, Othniel―Achsah’s husband―became the first judge in Israel.
This story has had a profound impact on me, and I have not fully extrapolated all its lessons. However, several questions come to mind:
- Have my expectations and requests been too small?
- When will I rise to the courage and confidence of Achsah and become a big asker?
I believe in this season, it’s time for big asking and big acting. It’s time to be fearless in asking for big things!
If Caleb was such a generous father, how much more generous is our heavenly father? If we ask in faith, fearlessly, God is able to grant us exceedingly, abundantly above all we can ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20).
I want to be a big fearless asker like the daughter of Caleb. How about you?
Personal Reflections
- What is the magnitude of your asking?
- Do you have the courage of Achsah?
- How has Achsah’s story inspired you?
