Divine Providence and the Coincidences That Got You Here

From the sermon preached on October 4, 2026

Divine providence is the quiet way God works through ordinary moments, unplanned detours, and even other people's poor decisions to move a story toward good. The book of Esther is the clearest picture of it in the Bible, because God is never mentioned once and yet a chain of coincidences rescues an entire people. If you are standing somewhere you never planned to be, that chain may look more familiar than you expect.

Most of us did not end up where we are on purpose. A job offer moved you across the country, a plan fell through, a diagnosis rewrote the calendar, and now you sit in the carpool line at 7:45 a.m. wondering whether any of it adds up to something. It is hard to believe anyone is steering when the steering looks so much like an accident.

The book of Esther does not rush to comfort that feeling. It is a strange, uncomfortable story about exiles living inside an empire that measured people by money and looks. It offers three hard-won insights: how to live faithfully inside a culture you did not choose, how to recognize God's hand when it stays hidden, and where to find a worth no contest can take away.

The story opens in the Persian citadel of Susa, where King Xerxes (ruler of the largest empire on earth at the time) throws a party that lasts 180 days. Drunk and eager to impress his guests, he summons Queen Vashti to parade before them, and she refuses. She is deposed, and his advisors answer with an official decree that wives must obey their husbands, as if a law could manufacture respect.

Into that world comes Esther, an orphaned Jewish girl raised by her cousin Mordecai, whose family had been carried from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Young women were taken to the palace without any choice; this was not a pageant anyone entered freely. Esther hides her heritage, follows the rules of a system that values her for her appearance, and ends up wearing the queen's crown.

Pastor Justin Ulrich, founder of Terraforma Church, admits the book of Esther has never fit neatly into a Sunday school lesson. Most of us default to one of three easy options: hide in a bubble, fight everything in sight, or blend in until nothing about us is different. Justin remembers 1990s youth rallies that framed culture as an enemy, and he offers a better picture: the Coast Guard never treats people in the water as the enemy.

Being in the world but not of the world comes from a prayer Jesus prayed in John 17:15, asking God not to take His followers out of the world but to protect them within it. Centuries earlier, the prophet Jeremiah told exiles in Babylon to seek the prosperity of the city where they had been carried (Jeremiah 29:7). Being in the world but not of the world means staying close enough to matter and different enough to help.

Being in the world but not of the world starts small. Today, pick one person or place you usually resent (the coworker who overpromises, the HOA board, the neighbor with the leaf blower) and do one thing that makes their day better without explaining why.

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Here is what makes the book of Esther unusual: God's name never appears in it. There is no prayer, no miracle, no parted sea; just a drunk king, a refused summons, a forced contest, and a series of convenient accidents. Justin calls this divine providence, the way God works through ordinary situations that are easy to overlook.

Look at Esther 2:19. Mordecai sits at the king's gate day after day, hoping for news of the cousin taken from his home, and while he waits he overhears two royal officers, Bigthana and Teresh, plotting to kill the king. He tells Esther, Esther tells the king, the plotters are executed, and the whole episode is written into the royal records and promptly forgotten.

God working behind the scenes does not mean God scripting every harm; Justin is clear that God did not send the diagnosis or the layoff. He is less a puppet master than a chess master who responds to every human move, even destructive ones, and keeps bending the story toward redemption. That forgotten entry in the royal records will turn out to be one of His moves.

Seeing God working behind the scenes usually happens in hindsight, which is how divine providence tends to work. Justin was 13 or 14, smoking pot in the parking lot of a church in Rochester, Michigan, when a long-haired man climbed out of a VW bus, walked him inside, and stopped the service so he could give his life to Jesus. Among the people who gathered to pray for him was a girl in an Oxford High School varsity jacket who, years and one bad breakup later, called him for advice and decided he was the one.

God working behind the scenes is easier to trust once you have traced it before. Tonight, write down three ordinary turns that brought you to where you are now (a conversation, a closed door, a move), then ask the simple question Justin offers: what does love require of me next?

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Persia had a simple scoring system. A man was worth his wealth, power, and status, and a woman was worth her looks. Esther 2:12 describes a full year of beauty treatments before a single night that would decide her future.

Justin's joke lands because it stings: thank God we no longer live in a culture like that. The promotion track, the kids' travel teams, the perfectly lit photos are softer versions of the same contest. They leave many high performers privately exhausted from never quite winning.

Meanwhile, the story quietly mocks its most powerful man. King Xerxes needs six months of parties to prove his importance and a cabinet meeting to handle one refusal from his wife. For all his power, he comes across as comically fragile.
Christian identity begins somewhere else entirely. Romans 5:8 says God showed His love in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Grace is not the prize for winning the pageant; God did not choose you because you won the contest.

That changes how you live. Christian identity rooted in grace lets you be honest in relationships without fearing rejection, and it frees you to take risks because your story is held by someone better at saving you than you are at running. Esther herself will soon move from compliance to courage, and that shift starts with knowing whose she is.

Christian identity grows in small, deliberate moments. The next time you catch yourself measuring your worth by a title, a number, or a reflection, pause and say one honest sentence out loud: I am loved before I perform.

Esther 2:7 introduces her by two names: Hadassah, a Hebrew name drawn from the word for myrtle, and Esther, the Persian name she carries in the palace. Even her name holds the tension of living in two worlds. Each small event in the chapter, centered on Esther 2:19, sets up the rescue that comes later in the book of Esther, a picture of divine providence at work.

1. Queen Vashti's Refusal
What happened: Vashti refuses to parade before the king's drunken guests and loses her crown.
Why it mattered: Her courage opens the throne that Esther will eventually fill.

2. Esther's Place in the Palace
What happened: Esther wins the favor of Hegai, the official in charge of the women brought to the palace.
Why it mattered: Favor inside a broken system places her exactly where her people will need her.

3. Mordecai's Watch at the Gate
What happened: Mordecai waits at the king's gate to stay near Esther and uncovers an assassination plot.
Why it mattered: His unrewarded loyalty is recorded in the royal annals, waiting for its moment.

The story points toward a faithful presence that looks like this:

• Staying close to people and places instead of withdrawing from them.
• Keeping a distinct center even when blending in would be easier.
• Seeking the good of your town, as Jeremiah urged the exiles.
• Watching ordinary days for small openings to do what love requires.
• Measuring worth by grace rather than by appearance or achievement.

Maybe you are on plan G or H by now and quietly wondering whether anyone is moving the pieces, and you do not need that settled to walk in somewhere honest. Terraforma Church meets every Sunday at 10:00 a.m. at Brambleton Middle School in Ashburn, close enough for neighbors in Stone Ridge and South Riding and an easy drive whether you are coming from Sterling, Herndon, or Leesburg. From the Aldie and Dulles corridor to every corner of Loudoun County, there is an open seat and no pressure to have your story sorted first.

The book of Esther refuses easy answers; it is a messy story full of compromised people, and God never steps onto the stage by name. Yet divine providence runs through every coincidence, and the same unseen hand is at work in your ordinary days, even when you cannot see the board. Let God move the pieces, and you make the next move.

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