“Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.” —Joseph Conrad
Acsah is the daughter of Joshua’s closest friend, the heroic Caleb, and marries the greatest hero of her generation, the giant-slaying warrior Othniel. She only appears in a few verses. First in the book of Joshua and then the exact same verses are repeated word for word in the book of Judges. The repetition tells us Acsah’s story is important, but how much can we learn from such a brief story?
So here’s the story. Caleb gives land to Acsah and Othniel as a wedding present. The location is deeply significant. It is near Hebron, the most southern of the cities of refuge, and also near the tomb of the revered patriarchs and their wives: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah. But this land is missing one very important thing. Water.
The two giant-slaying war heroes haven’t considered that, but Acsah knows they are not here simply to fight evil. Yahweh God planted his chosen people in the Promised land to be a demonstration of the goodness of God. That blessed living would include farming the land. Manna doesn’t fall from the sky anymore. Bread must be coaxed from the ground by hard work––sowing seeds, nurturing and watering the seedlings, then finally harvesting, threshing, and grinding the grain for flour. No water. No food. No life.
Acsah goes to her husband and urges him to go to Caleb to ask for a source of water. For whatever reason, Othniel does not get up out of his chair. He doesn’t even answer her, so she takes matters into her own hands, saddles up her donkey, and goes to her father to request a little more land with the needed water. Without hesitation, Caleb gives his daughter more than she asked for. Two sources of water, both the upper and lower springs.
Hard work in the “good fight of faith” is not enough. When we, like Acsah, sense dryness around us, we should never hesitate to go to our Heavenly Father and ask for water––the Holy Spirit. We have a good Father. He will give us both the upper and lower springs, whatever earthly and heavenly gifts we need to finish the work he has given us to do.
Acsah is a woman of action who can hold her own with either one of the heroic men in her life when something needs to be done. I suspect she would have joined Joshua’s army if she could have, but she learns that sometimes just living well where we are planted will bring glory to God. Book by book through the Stones of Gilgal series, readers will watch Acsah grow and mature into the nobility of her ultimate role—a godly woman in ungodly times.
Acsah was the spelling used for Celeb’s daughter in the New International Version when I began writing my novels. It was an improvement over an older, “Hebrew-ish” spelling: Achsah. The updated NIV has moved on to a newer spelling, Aksah, in an attempt to clarify the pronunciation. As a parent does not update the spelling of her child’s name according to fickle fashion, I am not changing the spelling of my “child” now that I know her so well. No matter the spelling, this inspirational woman from the ancient days of the Old Testament is worth getting to know.
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