Judges 2: Jesus Wants to Conquer Your Cities of Doubt

Introduction

"No one is going to judge you tonight, so don't be afraid." That is how Christian Robichaud, pastor at Église Évangélique Paris Métropole, invites his listeners to open the book of Judges.

His starting point is union with Christ. Most Christians have experienced Jesus living in them: they have invited him into their lives, they hear his voice, and the Spirit bears witness with their spirit. But what does it mean to be in him? When we understand how fully we are in Jesus, the pastor says, it brings the solution to every problem in Jesus Christ.

To illustrate it, he pauses on one precise moment in Israel's history: the day the people stopped conquering Canaan, and the angel of Yahweh came on foot to ask them why.

Message Outline

1. Canaan, a Picture of Your Heart

Paul uses the phrase "in Christ" nearly 250 times in his writings. It was part of his everyday language.
God himself gives a picture of it in the story of Israel. Egypt represents your life before God. The Red Sea represents the new birth.
The wilderness represents a form of Christian life where your sins are forgiven and you are reconciled with God, but your life bears no fruit. The pastor quotes a man of God he greatly admired: it takes little faith for God to accept us in heaven, but it takes great faith to live heaven and victory every day here on earth.
The new generation crosses the Jordan and conquers Canaan: this is the day you decide to live with God and take hold of the inheritance he has for you.
Paul saw in Israel a picture of us: these things "happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition" (1 Corinthians 10:11), so that "through patience and through encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope" (Romans 15:4).
"This promised land is your heart." The inheritance is entirely in Jesus Christ. The blockage is not in heaven, nor with the devil, nor with your neighbor, nor with your boss: it is in our hearts.

2. A People Who Stopped Halfway Through the Conquest

Jericho falls, then one city after another. But at the end of Joshua's life and in the book of Judges, the finding is surprising: Israel conquered less than half of the cities God had asked it to take. About twenty were taken, and 27 remained in enemy hands.
Facing one valley, they say: "They have chariots of iron, we'll never make it" (Joshua 17:16; Judges 1:19). Facing another city: "We can't do it." Yet this people had seen miracles.
Either they were afraid, or they underestimated the danger of keeping enemy cities in their midst. The pastor puts these words in their mouths: "I have my house, my little vineyard, my barbecue, my friends, and my kids are starting school." The Canaanites live in the next village and cause no trouble, so no one touches anything.
Or they lost sight of the one who walked before them: the one who had gone to get them out of Egypt, who had opened the Red Sea, who had been faithful for forty years in the wilderness and had brought them across the Jordan. The angel of Yahweh.

3. The Angel of Yahweh Goes Up from Gilgal to Bochim

For the preacher, the angel of Yahweh is a Christophany, Jesus Christ himself in the Old Testament. God had warned them: "beware of him, and obey his voice" (Exodus 23:20-21).
Until then, no one had seen him: he was in the cloud. Only Moses saw "Yahweh's form" (Numbers 12:8), and the New Testament says of Jesus that he existed "in the form of God" (Philippians 2:6).
Gilgal was Israel's base camp, the starting point of the whole conquest. Years have passed, everyone has settled down, and Joshua is very old. That is where the angel appears and walks about 12 miles (20 km) to Bochim.
He does not say "thus says Yahweh" like a messenger. He speaks in his own name: "I brought you out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers" (Judges 2:1). It is God coming to see his people.
God had warned them that those they let remain would be "barbs in your eyes, and thorns in your sides" (Numbers 33:55). The angel adds: "I will not drive them out from before you" (Judges 2:3). If you do not want to drive them out, he will not do it in your place.
The people lift up their voices and weep. The place is called Bochim, "weepers," and they offer sacrifices there (Judges 2:4-5). For the pastor, this is true revival: repentance, not excitement.
Then Joshua sends the people away, and each goes to his own inheritance (Judges 2:6). "When you leave here tonight, you are going into your inheritance."

4. The Unconquered Cities Are Your Zones of Doubt

These cities do not represent sin. "Whoever is born of God doesn't commit sin" (1 John 3:9). A child of God can stumble, but he does not hold on to his sin, justify it, or hide it.
Nor do they represent trials, since God had already delivered all of Canaan into their hands. He had thrown "the horse and his rider" into the sea (Exodus 15:1), and he had made the walls of Jericho fall. But facing the iron chariots: "Not them, that's too much for us."
They represent zones of doubt. Can God really provide? Keep me? Has he truly forgiven me? Can he heal? Can he help me love someone I can't manage to love?
On some subjects, the city has fallen. Some have seen God provide for their financial needs so often that, for them, it is settled. But Jesus turns to other subjects and wants to conquer every place in your heart where you doubt that he can act.
Israel lived in peace. There are Christians whose work, marriage, health, finances, and church are all going well, and who live quietly with these doubts. Jesus comes to say to them: "Why did you stop?"
"We have problems, but God has a problem with us." You say: "Lord, I have problems here." He answers: "Yes, but I have a problem with you: you don't trust me." Lord, can you reconcile me with my mother? Can you save my daughter, whom I have prayed for over many years?
"We are not going to fix your problems. We are going to fix your doubts." Jesus adds: "If I can kill the doubt, you are going to have a miracle." The pastor makes clear that he is not talking about a dream life or luxury, but about spiritual things.

5. Four States for the Cities of Your Heart

Extermination: as at Jericho, the doubt is destroyed and peace reigns. But you must stay watchful, because the enemy tries to come back. God has provided for years, then a new financial challenge arrives: "Yes, but can he do it again?"
Subjection: some Canaanites were subdued. These are the hidden doubts, the buried ones, the subjects we don't want to talk about because we were hurt too deeply. Jesus takes you by the hand to attack the fortress. The pastor testifies to this for himself: "We're going to empty the closets."
Cohabitation: "I've made peace with this subject." A stressed Christian, even though Jesus is the Prince of Peace and God made a covenant of peace with us (Isaiah 54:10). A Christian who has made peace with his anger, or with his cigarette. We are saved by grace, but "at some point, it becomes unbelief." The problem is not the anger; it is that you no longer believe Jesus can change you.
Regression: because of the iron chariots, one tribe of Israel was pushed back into the mountains (Judges 1:34). At that time, the economy relied on farming and herding, in the valleys and plains. Living in the mountains was a struggle. Living side by side with doubt lets the enemy regain ground and pushes you into mere survival.

6. Peace Is Not the Absence of Problems

"Canaan is conquered when, on every subject, I have total trust in God." Peace is not the absence of problems, but the absence of doubt that God can act.
If God sent the angel of Yahweh to preach in the streets of Israel, it is because he loved them. If he shakes your heart tonight, it is because he loves you and wants you at peace.
Doubts that are not destroyed become barbs in the eyes and thorns in the sides. They create worries, fears, and anxieties. But someone carried all the thorns in our place: Jesus wore the crown of thorns (Matthew 27:29) so that you would no longer have to wear it.
Do not be afraid: you are not about to enter the worst trial of your life; the Lord is good. And if you counted thirteen subjects of doubt during the sermon, you do not have to attack them all at once. But one thing is certain: "What we do not attack will attack us."

7. Opening Your Heart to the Revelation of Jesus' Love

The conquest does not mean setting off alone to assault a doubt. Reciting verses, playing worship songs on a loop, making declarations, pouring oil on walls: the pastor does not mock any of it, but you reach the end of yourself and say: "Lord, the battle is yours."
He compares the heart to the film in old cameras: you opened the shutter, the light came in and printed an image in the darkness. Israel stopped conquering because it had lost sight of Jesus. You need the revelation that Jesus loves you: it prints an image, and the doubt disappears.
His testimony: in Canada, as a full-time youth pastor, he needed nothing. One Thursday prayer evening in his basement, he hears God say to him: "Ask me for shoes." He refuses; he can buy them himself. As he leaves, he hears: "I'm going to give them to you anyway."
While he is preaching to the youth group, a woman who works in the shoe business writes to him: "Do you need shoes?" He declines twice. She replies: "I have to obey the Lord." With his daughter as a witness, he goes home humbled and confused, with four pairs of shoes.
He did not know that God was preparing him for his first seven years in France, without a salary, living every week on God's grace and provision. "It had to start somewhere."
God wants us to be real with him: "Lord, I'm not able to believe you, but I take your hand." The pastor concludes in prayer: name your doubts, do not bury them, do not live alongside them, and let Jesus conquer with you every city of your heart, until you can say on every subject: "I'm not perfect, but I trust God."

Key Takeaways

Being in Christ means letting Jesus conquer your heart, the promised land where your inheritance is found.
Israel stopped halfway through the conquest out of fear, out of comfort, or because it had lost sight of the one who walked before it.
The unconquered cities are the areas where you doubt that God can act. We have problems, but God has a problem with our doubts.
A doubt can be destroyed, subdued, tolerated, or become a regression. What we do not attack will attack us.
Peace is not the absence of problems but the absence of doubt. It comes from the revelation of Jesus' love, who wore the crown of thorns in your place.

Personal Application

On what subject do you doubt today that God can act: finances, marriage, children, health, the past, the future?
Is there a doubt you have buried because it stirs up too much, or one you have "made peace with"?
In what area has your Christian life settled into comfort, to the point that you have stopped moving forward with Jesus?
Do you dare to be real before God and tell him: "I'm not able to believe you on this point, but I take your hand"?
Which city of doubt will you name before the Lord this week in order to conquer it with him?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What do the unconquered cities of Canaan represent according to Christian Robichaud?

For Christian Robichaud, Canaan represents your heart. The cities left to the Canaanites are not sin, since whoever is born of God does not commit sin, nor are they trials, since God had already delivered the land. They are zones of doubt: the subjects where you doubt that God can act, provide, heal, or restore.

Who is the angel of Yahweh in Judges 2?

The preacher sees in him a Christophany, Jesus himself in the Old Testament. At Bochim, the angel does not say "thus says Yahweh": he speaks in his own name and says "I brought you out of Egypt." It is God coming to see his people, because he loves them.

How do you conquer your doubts with Jesus?

Not by your own strength. Christian Robichaud invites you to name your doubts, to stop burying them or living alongside them, and to be real before God. Jesus takes your hand and you go together. The revelation of his love in your heart prints an image that drives out doubt.