Context No. 3175 of 4322 · Judges

Judges 1:14-21: in context

14When she came, she got him to ask her father for a field. She got off her donkey; and Caleb said to her, “What would you like?” 15She said to him, “Give me a blessing; because you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water.” Then Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. 16The children of the Kenite, Moses’ brother-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people. 17Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they struck the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. The name of the city was called Hormah. 18Also Judah took Gaza with its border, and Ashkelon with its border, and Ekron with its border. 19The LORD was with Judah, and drove out the inhabitants of the hill country; for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron. 20They gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said, and he drove the three sons of Anak out of there. 21The children of Benjamin didn’t drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem, but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

Achsah, given in marriage, asks her father Caleb for a blessing: you have given me the dry land of the Negev; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gives her the upper springs and the lower. Then the conquest continues, but it is incomplete: Judah could not drive out the valley-dwellers who had iron chariots, and Benjamin failed to drive the Jebusites out of Jerusalem.

Two things. Achsah is bold to ask: handed dry land, she asks her father for springs, and receives both upper and lower. She did not settle for less than she needed but asked, and her father gave generously, a lesson in asking a generous father for what we truly need. And then the darker note: the conquest was left incomplete, they could not drive out the valley-dwellers because of their iron chariots, and the compromises that remained, the Jebusites left in Jerusalem, would trouble Israel for generations. Half-obedience, leaving the hard parts undone, plants problems for the future.

Am I bold to ask my generous Father for what I truly need, and honest about the "iron chariots" and hard tasks I am tempted to leave undone?

Sources

Judges 1:15: "Give me also springs of water. Then Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs."
Judges 1:19: "The LORD was with Judah... but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron."
Luke 11:13: "How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"