Caleb said to her, "What do you want?"She said to him, "Give me a blessing.
Since you have set me in the land
of the Negev, give me also springs of water.
And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
Judges 1:13b - 15
What a wedding gift! Achsah encourages her new husband Othniel to ask her father for land as a wedding present. Caleb responds to his son-in-law by giving the newlyweds acres in the Negev–land not even remotely hospitable to new life. Achsah is a bride who is in circumstances beyond her control.
Amazingly she doesn’t demand a more appropriate gift! Instead she goes to her father and asks for a blessing that will make desert living possible. "Give me a blessing–I can’t live in the desert without water." It’s a cry for help from a daughter to her father. Hearing her cry, Caleb does not skimp on his generosity. He gives Achsah the upper AND lower springs. It is abundantly more than her request.
Our urgent cries to our Father are often, "get me out of this desert!" We don’t want to live in the Negev! But, to be able to see our deserts as the Father’s gift and ask that the gift be accompanied with a blessing, making desert living more habitable–this is how we want to live! Expecting God to exchange the gift would mean we know better than he what we need. To ask for a blessing within the desert is to acknowledge that God knows where we are living and what we need to survive.
Father, I am your child!
Hear my cry!
I am not asking for the desert to be removed
Hear my voice!
Bless me with your living waters.
AMEN.
Bless me with your living waters.
AMEN.
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