Trusting God's Divine Providence When You Feel Checkmated
From the sermon preached on October 25, 2026
Divine providence is the idea that God is still at work in your story, even when nothing on the surface says so. Trusting God when life feels like checkmate does not mean pretending the board looks good; it means believing there is still a move left that you cannot see yet. The book of Esther, a story where God's name never appears once, may be the clearest picture of that anywhere in the Bible.
Maybe it is the diagnosis nobody saw coming, or the job you needed that went to someone else. Maybe it is grief that ambushes you in the carpool line, or debt that sits in your chest on every drive down the Greenway. You have been doing your best, and this year still turned out more bummer than banner.
In 1831, the German artist Moritz Retzsch painted a young man playing chess against the devil for his soul; his queen is gone and his king is cornered. That is what it feels like when chaos seems to be winning, and it is exactly where the story of Esther begins to turn.
Maybe it is the diagnosis nobody saw coming, or the job you needed that went to someone else. Maybe it is grief that ambushes you in the carpool line, or debt that sits in your chest on every drive down the Greenway. You have been doing your best, and this year still turned out more bummer than banner.
In 1831, the German artist Moritz Retzsch painted a young man playing chess against the devil for his soul; his queen is gone and his king is cornered. That is what it feels like when chaos seems to be winning, and it is exactly where the story of Esther begins to turn.
Can You Trust God's Plan in Chaos When He Seems Absent?
The book of Esther tells the story of Jewish exiles living in Persia under King Xerxes, and across ten chapters God is never mentioned by name. For the first half, everything goes badly: a vain king, a young orphan named Hadassah (Esther) taken into his harem and made queen, and a royal official named Haman who secures an edict to wipe out every Jewish person in the empire.
If you are looking for God's plan in chaos, Esther does not hand you an easy answer; it hands you a pattern. Scholars have long noticed that the book is written as a chiasm, an ancient literary form where chapters mirror each other around a single center point.
That center point is almost comically small. In Esther 6:1, the king cannot sleep, asks for the royal records to be read aloud, and discovers that Mordecai, Esther's cousin, once saved his life and was never thanked.
That is Esther's quiet claim about God's plan in chaos: absence on the page is not absence in the story. Pastor Justin Ulrich describes God less like a puppet master and more like a chess master who responds to human choices without overriding them, still guiding the game toward redemption. God does not cause the cancer or the layoff; He works within the mess we make.
Today, write down two or three small moments that, looking back, changed the direction of your life. Do not force a meaning onto them; just notice that God's plan in chaos might have been closer than it felt, and let that be a small first step in trusting God again.
If you are looking for God's plan in chaos, Esther does not hand you an easy answer; it hands you a pattern. Scholars have long noticed that the book is written as a chiasm, an ancient literary form where chapters mirror each other around a single center point.
That center point is almost comically small. In Esther 6:1, the king cannot sleep, asks for the royal records to be read aloud, and discovers that Mordecai, Esther's cousin, once saved his life and was never thanked.
That is Esther's quiet claim about God's plan in chaos: absence on the page is not absence in the story. Pastor Justin Ulrich describes God less like a puppet master and more like a chess master who responds to human choices without overriding them, still guiding the game toward redemption. God does not cause the cancer or the layoff; He works within the mess we make.
Today, write down two or three small moments that, looking back, changed the direction of your life. Do not force a meaning onto them; just notice that God's plan in chaos might have been closer than it felt, and let that be a small first step in trusting God again.
How God Turns Things Around in Esther's Story
Esther 7 is where the board shifts. Queen Esther invites King Xerxes and Haman to a second banquet, and Haman arrives smug, having just built a pole seventy-five feet tall to impale Mordecai on the next morning.
Then Esther reveals that she and her people have been sold to be destroyed, and when the king demands to know who did it, she names the enemy in the room: Haman. You can almost see him freeze, a grape halfway to his mouth.
The king storms into the palace garden, leaving his wine behind, and Haman throws himself onto Esther's couch to beg for his life just as the king walks back in. A servant named Harbona mentions the pole outside Haman's house, and Esther 7:10 records that Haman was hanged on the very structure he had built for Mordecai.
This is how God turns things around: not usually with lightning, but with timing, courage, and moments that line up just so. The man who demanded that Mordecai bow ends up begging at the feet of a young Jewish orphan.
Joseph told the brothers who sold him into slavery that what they intended for harm, God intended for good (Genesis 50:20). When God turns things around, the thing designed for your destruction can become the path of your deliverance; that is what divine providence looks like in real time.
Today, name one situation that feels like a dead end, and say it out loud to someone you trust instead of carrying it alone. Sometimes God turns things around through the people who finally get to see the board with you.
Then Esther reveals that she and her people have been sold to be destroyed, and when the king demands to know who did it, she names the enemy in the room: Haman. You can almost see him freeze, a grape halfway to his mouth.
The king storms into the palace garden, leaving his wine behind, and Haman throws himself onto Esther's couch to beg for his life just as the king walks back in. A servant named Harbona mentions the pole outside Haman's house, and Esther 7:10 records that Haman was hanged on the very structure he had built for Mordecai.
This is how God turns things around: not usually with lightning, but with timing, courage, and moments that line up just so. The man who demanded that Mordecai bow ends up begging at the feet of a young Jewish orphan.
Joseph told the brothers who sold him into slavery that what they intended for harm, God intended for good (Genesis 50:20). When God turns things around, the thing designed for your destruction can become the path of your deliverance; that is what divine providence looks like in real time.
Today, name one situation that feels like a dead end, and say it out loud to someone you trust instead of carrying it alone. Sometimes God turns things around through the people who finally get to see the board with you.
What God's Redemption Looks Like When the Damage Is Already Done
Even after Haman is gone, the king's original edict still stands, because Persian law cannot be revoked. So the king issues a second decree that overrides the first, giving the Jewish people the right to defend themselves.
This is a picture of God's redemption. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death, less a threat than a description of where Haman's road of pride and grudges ends. God's redemption does not pretend the first decree never existed; in Jesus, God writes a second decree of grace that overrides it.
Paul goes further in Romans 8:28, writing that God works in all things for the good of those who love Him. Pastor Justin Ulrich is careful here, and so is the text: it does not say God causes all things. He has spoken openly about being abused by his third-grade teacher, and he is clear that God was not the agent of that harm.
What he has come to believe, at forty-five, is that the little boy in that room was never alone, and that God has not wasted that pain. That is what God's redemption looks like up close: not an explanation for the wound, but a presence inside it and a future beyond it.
Paul ends Romans 8 insisting that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God, which is why trusting God with old wounds is not naive. Today, write one honest sentence about a wound you have never said out loud, even if it is only to God.
This is a picture of God's redemption. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death, less a threat than a description of where Haman's road of pride and grudges ends. God's redemption does not pretend the first decree never existed; in Jesus, God writes a second decree of grace that overrides it.
Paul goes further in Romans 8:28, writing that God works in all things for the good of those who love Him. Pastor Justin Ulrich is careful here, and so is the text: it does not say God causes all things. He has spoken openly about being abused by his third-grade teacher, and he is clear that God was not the agent of that harm.
What he has come to believe, at forty-five, is that the little boy in that room was never alone, and that God has not wasted that pain. That is what God's redemption looks like up close: not an explanation for the wound, but a presence inside it and a future beyond it.
Paul ends Romans 8 insisting that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God, which is why trusting God with old wounds is not naive. Today, write one honest sentence about a wound you have never said out loud, even if it is only to God.
What Does Esther 7 Teach About Divine Providence?
Esther 7:10 marks the turning point of the book, and the story leaves clear markers for anyone wondering whether divine providence is real.
1. The Hidden God
What happens: God is never named in Esther, yet every event bends toward rescue.
What it means: Silence from heaven is not the same as absence from your life.
2. The Small Turn
What happens: A king's sleepless night (Esther 6:1) sets the reversal in motion.
What it means: Divine providence often works through moments we would call ordinary.
3. The Great Reversal
What happens: Haman dies on the pole he built for Mordecai.
What it means: What was meant for destruction can become a doorway to deliverance.
4. The Second Decree
What happens: A new edict overrides the old one that could not be erased.
What it means: Grace does not deny the damage; it writes a better ending over it.
The Jewish festival of Purim takes its name from the Hebrew word pur, meaning "lot," the dice Haman cast to choose the date of destruction. The chain of so-called coincidences in Esther includes:
1. The Hidden God
What happens: God is never named in Esther, yet every event bends toward rescue.
What it means: Silence from heaven is not the same as absence from your life.
2. The Small Turn
What happens: A king's sleepless night (Esther 6:1) sets the reversal in motion.
What it means: Divine providence often works through moments we would call ordinary.
3. The Great Reversal
What happens: Haman dies on the pole he built for Mordecai.
What it means: What was meant for destruction can become a doorway to deliverance.
4. The Second Decree
What happens: A new edict overrides the old one that could not be erased.
What it means: Grace does not deny the damage; it writes a better ending over it.
The Jewish festival of Purim takes its name from the Hebrew word pur, meaning "lot," the dice Haman cast to choose the date of destruction. The chain of so-called coincidences in Esther includes:
- Mordecai overhearing a plot against the king at the palace gate
- The lot falling on a date nearly a year away
- A sleepless king reading exactly the right page of the royal records
- Haman tripping onto Esther's couch the moment the king returned
You Do Not Have to Face the Hard Seasons Alone
When the board looks hopeless, the loneliest part is believing no one else can see what you are up against. Terraforma Church is full of ordinary people who have felt checkmated too and are learning to keep trusting God anyway. Whether you live in Ashburn or Brambleton, commute from Sterling or Herndon, or drive in from Leesburg, Stone Ridge, or Aldie, you are welcome Sundays at 10:00 AM at Brambleton Middle School, in the heart of Loudoun County.
Why Checkmate Is Never the Last Move
Haman thought he had won, but God was already several moves ahead, and trusting God means believing He still is. God does not cause the evil in your story, but He refuses to waste the pain of it. What was supposed to be a funeral ended in a feast; a cursed tree built for destruction became, in Jesus, the doorway through which deliverance flows to all of us.
When you are ready to take a step closer, Sunday Gathering is a relaxed, one-hour morning with real people and practical teaching; plan your visit here.
You are welcome to start smaller with the Connect Card, a simple way to say hello or share a prayer need; get started here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does God work through coincidences in my life?
The book of Esther suggests He often does. A sleepless king, a forgotten good deed, and a badly timed stumble all line up to rescue an entire people. Not every event is a miracle, but many moments we call chance may be part of a larger, redemptive design.
Can God use my pain for something good?
Romans 8:28 says God works in all things for the good of those who love Him, which is different from saying He causes all things. God does not author abuse, illness, or loss. He can, however, refuse to let that pain have the last word.
Where is God when everything goes wrong in life?
Esther never names God, yet the story shows Him at work in every chapter. When life falls apart, His presence can be hard to see, but hidden is not the same as absent. Many people only recognize His hand looking back.
What is the Feast of Purim?
Purim is the Jewish festival that celebrates the rescue told in the book of Esther. Its name comes from pur, the "lot" Haman cast to choose the day of destruction. Today it is marked with costumes, a public reading of Esther, and noisemakers that drown out Haman's name.
Why is God never mentioned in the book of Esther?
Esther is the only book in the Bible that never names God, and many readers believe that silence is deliberate. It mirrors how life often feels: God seems absent, yet events keep bending toward rescue. The book invites readers to look for His hand in ordinary moments.
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