Capture of Other Cities
11 Then from there he went against the inhabitants of Debir (now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath-sepher). 12 And Caleb said, “The one who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will even give him my daughter Achsah for a wife.” 13 Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah for a wife. 14 Then it came about when she came to him, that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. Then she alighted from [h]her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What [i]do you want?” 15 She said to him, “Give me a blessing, since you have given me the land of the [j]Negev, give me also springs of water.” So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
16 The [k]descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the city of palms with the sons of Judah, to the wilderness of Judah which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people. 17 Then Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they struck the Canaanites living in Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah. 18 And Judah took Gaza with its territory and Ashkelon with its territory and Ekron with its territory. 19 Now the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not [l]drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had iron chariots. 20 Then they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had [m]promised; and he drove out from there the three sons of Anak. 21 But the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
22 Likewise the house of Joseph went up against Bethel, and the Lord was with them. 23 The house of Joseph spied out Bethel (now the name of the city was formerly Luz). 24 The spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, “Please show us the entrance to the city and we will treat you kindly.” 25 So he showed them the entrance to the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go free. 26 The man went into the land of the Hittites and built a city and named it Luz [n]which is its name to this day.
Caleb shows us a glimpse of our Father’s heart in dealing with his daughter. God wants to bless us, but that doesn’t always mean just giving us material things. No all things that we think are good are actually a blessing. So it is interesting that Achsah approaches her father and the first words are “Give me a blessing…”
Had Caleb though it would be too much for his son-in-law and daughter to manage, surely he would have declined, or perhaps only given them one set of springs. So it is with God, except He knows exactly what we can handle, what will challenge us to grow closer to Him vs. what will weigh us down and pull us away from Him.
So I think it is appropriate that we recognize that when we ask for blessings that we actually keep in mind that God does want to bless us. But he will not give us something that will be a burden or a curse instead (though he may at times give us a taste of it, to show us it isn’t what we really want).