We are told very little about this daughter of Israel, but I think we may learn much from what is written in Joshua 15:16 and Judges 1:12, remembering that all Scripture has a voice to us, if only we have a ready ear and an understanding heart.
Achsah was the daughter of Caleb, the man of faith, who could say without boasting that “he wholly followed the Lord his God.”
The consequence was that there was no halting or wavering in him; instead, he possessed that keen purpose of heart that made him superior to apparently insurmountable obstacles and difficult circumstances, maintaining him steadily in the pathway of God’s will for His people until he ultimately became a victor and an overcomer. His words of encouragement to his dispirited brethren, “The Lord is with us: fear them not,” tells us the secret of his strength.
We are not surprised that Achsah proves herself a true daughter of this spiritual giant. She is given by Caleb as a bride to her cousin Othniel, when by his dauntless bravery he captures the stronghold of Kirjath-sepher from the enemy, thus proving himself a fitting partner for her.
He seemed as keen as his uncle in making his own the inheritance God had given His people to possess. He was thus training for his later important position when he became Israel’s deliverer and judge for forty years, during which time God’s people had rest from the constant harassing attacks of their surrounding enemies. It is on the occasion of her presentation as bride to the returning conqueror, that Achsah shows that the present possession and enjoyment of the blessing of God has the first place in her heart also.
At her father’s hand she had already received an inheritance, the south land, which without water would be unproductive and unfruitful. Therefore, she makes a further request: “Give me a blessing ... give me also springs of water.”
She goes a step further than the daughters of Zelophehad. They asked for an inheritance; Achsah has an inheritance, and requests, in effect, that which will make it a present source of satisfaction and pleasure to her. It only needed the bubbling springs of living water, upper and lower, so readily granted, to make the inheritance everything she wished it to be to her—a source of constant joy.
If we have committed ourselves to Christ and form part of that bride given to Him, the true Overcomer of the world, we have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, reserved in heaven. It is God’s will that we should be in the present enjoyment now of that heavenly inheritance and the blessings connected with it, which are centered in Christ at His right hand. The mere knowledge of this, however, will not bear fruit, nor bring joy to our own hearts unless made good to us by the power of the Holy Spirit—“the earnest of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:14). We, unlike Achsah, do not need to ask to receive, for as a wondrous gift from God He is sent to indwell all believers since the Lord has been glorified.
You will remember what the Lord said to the Samaritan woman: “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). And again, in John 7:38-39 He says to the Jews, “He that believeth on Me ... out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.” It is for us to see to it that there is nothing in our life and ways that would grieve the Holy Spirit, and thus hinder Him from making the abiding joys of heaven so real to our souls that we anticipate them now, entering into those marvelous things that “eye hath not seen, no ear heard,” but which God hath revealed unto us by His Spirit. It is only by His power that these things afford us real joy, or are made fruitful to our souls; without this our heavenly inheritance affords us little pleasure.
May we each, as man’s day is fast hastening to its close, and Christ’s return draws nigh, be so subject to God’s Holy Spirit that we may increasingly enter into and enjoy by His power the reality of our portion in Christ, until that moment in actuality we shall possess it to the full in His presence.