15 She replied, ‘Do me a special FAVOUR. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me also springs of water.’ So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs. Judges 1
FAVOUR WAS ASKED FOR AND GIVEN, by an earthly father to his married daughter. Caleb had given his daughter Acsah to Othniel after he took Kiriath Sepher in battle. They had already received land in the Negev, a very dry area, from Caleb, but now Acsah asked her father for the springs of water, the source of life. I have a sense that Caleb, the mighty warrior from a previous generation, was behaving as a ‘Type’ of Our Father in Heaven on this occasion. He asked Acsah, ‘What can I do for You?’ He blessed her with the ‘Upper and Lower Springs’.
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives;
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, HOW MUCH MORE will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7
The word Favour is used three times in the Book of Judges and on each occasion a question is asked and there is a connection with life and restoration.
17 Gideon replied, ‘If now I have found Favour in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.’ Judges 6
Gideon had a visit from the Angel of the Lord to announce that God was going to destroy the Midianites who were cruelly oppressing His people. Sooner or later God always pays back those who ill treat His people. Gideon was hiding some wheat in a wine press when the encounter came. He asked the Lord to wait while he prepared a sacrifice, which He did. Gideon’s request was granted and God began to use him as His chosen Deliverer against Midianite hoards.
15 The people grieved for Benjamin, because the Lord had made a gap in the tribes of Israel. Judges 21
Only a small number of Benjamite men had survived a battle with all Israel and they’d sworn not to give their daughters as wives to them, so the tribe would have died out. They devised a plan to have the Benjamites who were left, seize a wife from the girls of Shiloh at the festival.
22 When their fathers or brothers complain to us, we will say to them, “Do us the Favour of helping them, because we did not get wives for them during the war. You will not be guilty of breaking your oath because you did not give your daughters to them.” Judges 21
Thus they restored life to the tribe of Benjamin and it wasn’t wiped out.
It says that Jesus grew ‘in Favour with God and man’, both are important. But in Judges people ASK for Favour, maybe a prompt for some of us to be bolder.
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