Passage: Joshua 15:13-19
The Big Idea
Caleb drives out three giants, then gives his daughter not one but two springs of water so her dry land can bear fruit. We face three giants too: the world, the flesh and the devil. And our Father gives generously, grace upon grace, rivers of living water for an abundant, fruitful life.
Springs of Water
Have you ever wondered how fresh, clean water just bubbles up out of the ground? Whatever the science, springs are amazing and valuable, especially before kitchen faucets.
A spring was a source of life. If you didn’t have a well, a river or a spring on your property, the land was worthless. Dry, dry, dry. Doesn’t your mouth get dry just thinking about it?
(How do you make a waterbed more bouncy? Use spring water.)
Where We Left Off
Caleb waited forty-five years for God’s promise. At eighty-five he was as passionate as ever, and he boldly said, “Give me this mountain,” because God had already promised it.
Three Giants (Joshua 15:13-14)
Joshua gave Caleb Hebron, as the Lord commanded. And Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak: Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.
Three giants. Not just one. (Take that, David.)
We fight three giants every day:
- The world: the fallen world system that leaves Jesus out and teaches us to find life in stuff, status and self-improvement.
- The flesh: old learned patterns of thinking and coping from before we knew Christ: self-made strategies, lusts, and religious self-reliance. It’s not your nature; you’re a new creation. The flesh is a way of setting your mind and walking, but it isn’t you.
- The devil: a real enemy who deceives and accuses. He can tempt and lie, but he was disarmed at the cross (Colossians 2:15). He can’t own you, live in you or separate you from God.
How they attack, and how we answer
- The world says, “This will complete you.” Truth: you are already complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10). Set your mind on things above (Colossians 3:2).
- The flesh says, “Do it the old way. Indulge, or improve yourself.” Truth: you’re a new creation. Walk by the Spirit, and you won’t carry out the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).
- The devil says, “You blew it. You’re condemned.” Truth: resist him, firm in the faith (1 Peter 5:9). Jesus finished it. Your sins are gone, and there is no condemnation.
How to drive them out like Caleb:
- When the world shouts, “Prove yourself,” remember you’re already accepted.
- When the flesh urges, “Grab control,” choose dependence: offer your body to God and walk by the Spirit.
- When the devil accuses, answer with the gospel: by one offering He has perfected me forever (Hebrews 10:14), and God remembers my sins no more (Hebrews 8:12).
A Lion in the Family (Joshua 15:15-17)
Caleb went on to attack Debir and said, “Whoever takes it, I’ll give him my daughter Achsah as his wife.”
Marriage meant becoming part of the family, and Caleb’s family was all about faith. He wanted to grow the family business.
Othniel, Caleb’s younger relative, took the city and married Achsah. Did he represent the family faith well? You bet your biscuits he did. Later, after Joshua and Caleb were gone, Othniel became the first judge of Israel, and the land had rest for forty years (Judges 3:9-11).
Caleb spent forty years in the wilderness and had his moment of victory at the end. Then the next generation in his family gave the nation forty years of rest. Sometimes God fulfills His promises to you in ways that make an even bigger impact on the future.
Don’t give up praying. Don’t lose heart.
Give Me Springs (Joshua 15:18-19)
When Achsah came to Othniel, she urged him to ask her father for a field. Then she got off her donkey, and Caleb said, “What do you want?”
“Give me a blessing. Since you’ve given me land in the dry south, give me springs of water too.”
So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
Achsah had her eye on a piece of land, but there was no water. Without springs, it was dry and barren. Not fruitful. You always need living water to produce fruit.
Caleb didn’t argue or mock her for picking a bad location. He didn’t lecture her on “location, location, location.” He just gave, generously.
A Picture of the Father
Caleb becomes a picture of God’s generosity.
Jesus tells us to ask and we’ll receive, seek and we’ll find, knock and the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7). Each verb is a deeper level of communion with God:
- Ask: Tell Me what you need. I want to give it.
- Seek: Tell Me why you need it. I already know, but as you seek, you’ll gain My heart and see where you might be asking selfishly.
- Knock: Come in and talk with Me about it. I’ll open not just My door or My hand, but My heart.
Jesus said that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we can ask whatever we want and it will be done for us (John 15:7). Why doesn’t Jesus put limits on that? Does He really mean it? It sounds like the only thing we need to focus on is abiding. That’s a relationship: a New Covenant relationship where I come with humility and faith, and God brings all the grace I need.
In this relationship, we’re not slaves or disappointments. We are beloved. We can expect generosity. Just as Caleb gave springs to Achsah, your Father freely supplies everything you need for life and godliness in Christ (2 Peter 1:3).
Two Springs: Grace upon Grace
Caleb gave not one but two springs.
The Word became flesh, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Jesus is full of two things, and there’s no limit to how much He holds. And of His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace (John 1:16).
What does Jesus do with everything He’s full of? He gives it to us. Not just to pastors; to all of us. And every gift is grace. Grace upon grace: He’s not done with one grace before He gives another, and another. Like two springs flowing from one source.
That’s abundant life. The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).
Rivers of Living Water
On the last day of the feast, Jesus stood and called out for anyone who was thirsty to come to Him and drink. Whoever believes in Him will have rivers of living water flowing from within. He was speaking of the Spirit (John 7:37-39).
Achsah thirsted for abundant life, and she asked her father for living water. We can do the same. We long to be fruitful and part of our Father’s kingdom work. That’s our thirst.
Jesus says there’s one simple way to satisfy it: come to Him and believe. And He gives the springs. Not trickles. Rivers. Torrents.
That’s the spiritual life we’ve been promised, and that’s why we live by promise and not by effort. Self-sourced living is a dry desert. Religion is an endless horizon of sand dunes.
What If There’s a Mountain in the Way?
“I hear Him calling. But what if there’s a mountain between me and the springs? What if I feel so far from His life that I can’t see a way over?”
Maybe it’s a past disappointment. Condemnation and guilt. Fear of losing your salvation or being “out of fellowship.” Legalism. Old flesh patterns like people-pleasing, lust, control or comparison. Worldly scripts that say, “I am what I achieve or own or feel.” The enemy’s endless “What if you blew it?”
Zechariah pictures a great mountain becoming flat ground before Zerubbabel, and the capstone being brought out with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” (Zechariah 4:7).
There’s one answer to every mountain: grace, and more grace. Two springs. No mountain can stand against God’s grace in Jesus. Shout grace, and keep shouting.
So What Do We Do?
Peter tells us to set our hope fully on the grace that will be given us when Jesus Christ is revealed (1 Peter 1:13).
- Ask your Father for springs of living water.
- Come to Jesus, the living Word, and believe His words.
- The Holy Spirit is given, and He is the springs of living water.
Then rest in it, just as Caleb rested in faith, waiting patiently. Rest fully, with no little corners of your mind worrying whether God will let you down. The New Covenant of grace heals everything broken in our minds and hearts. Abundant life isn’t stress, worry, doubt and despair. It’s rest.
Grace Takeaway
Where aren’t you at rest? Where’s the dry land in your life that needs living water? Are you thirsty, after drinking salt water that never satisfies? Jesus is still standing and calling the thirsty to come to Him and drink. Ask. Your Father gives both springs.
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