And the daughter of Caleb was Achsah. – 1 Chronicles 2:49
Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. – Proverbs 31:10 – 11
The moment I read these verses, Proverbs 31: 10-11, one woman’s name came to mind – Achsah.
According to 1 Chronicles 2:49, Achsah was the daughter of Caleb. This Caleb was Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite (Joshua 14:6), the companion of Joshua, and one of the 12 spies (leaders of the tribes of Israel) who Moses had sent to spy out the Promised Land.
As I stop and revisit what the Bible shares with us about Achsah, I find myself pondering these questions?
What must it have been like to grow up as the only daughter of a national hero? The daughter of one of the only two men of their generation that God permitted to live long enough, not only to enter the Promised Land but, to fight in the battles of conquest?
What must it have been like to be raised by the man who withstood and quieted a mob of hundreds of thousands of people with the words, “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it” (Numbers 13:35) and of whom God Himself testified, “my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it” (Numbers 14:24)
Achsah was a part of the “so-called victims” of whom God promised, “…. your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised.But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection. I the Lord have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.” (Numbers 14:31-35)
Achsah was a part of that generation who grew up witnessing the results of the 40-year sentence their parents had received from God. However, unlike her peers, Achsah and her three brothers grew up in a household that was waiting in anticipation for the 40-year promise of God to be manifested in their life: the promise of a bonus inheritance for her father’s wholehearted devotion to God; a family who were waiting for “the war”.
Achsah grew up as the daughter of the warrior Caleb, whose name meant “dog” or “dog-like”. He was a man of faith, courage, and tenacity, even in his old age. Forty five years after God made that promise to him and his descendants, Caleb said to Joshua, “And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said” (Joshua 14: 10-12)
How did growing up in such an environment help shape Achsah into becoming the virtuous woman that we see in those two short passages of the Bible? Although all we have to instruct us are a total of 12 verses, we can surmise that she grew up with an understanding of what it meant to be a warrior; what it meant to be a military ally. The portrait that I see of her is that of a woman of valor, strength, might, wisdom, efficiency, wealth, and ability; a virtuous woman.
Come with me as I dig deeper into the historian’s account of Achsah and use this snapshot of her life to unveil more of who we are as women, our assignment/purpose and what we have been equipped with for this mission.
DIG DEEPER:
1. Devotional – When Asking Secures His Spoil
2. Bible Study – ACHSAH: Daughter, Wife, Mother