God Knows and Protects His Own

Exodus 9:6 (ESV) And the next day the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died.
Exodus 9:11 (ESV) And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians.

Exodus 9:26 (ESV) Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.

Exodus 10:15 (ESV) They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

Exodus 10:23 (ESV) They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived.

The recurring message of the final plagues is the repeated theme that while Egypt suffered the wrath of God, the people of Israel were protected and sheltered from the dangers of these disasters. 

The lesson is simple: God watches out for His own.

The Psalmist repeated this idea in Psalm 91:

Psalm 91:7–8 (ESV) A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.

God watches over His own. The New Testament refers to those in Christ as God's children, God's possession, God's priesthood, God's nation, God's chosen ones, God's beloved, God's anointed and God's family. Those are all terms of endearment. There is nothing you wouldn't do to protect your family and children. God is the same way. 

Why then do bad things happen to God's children?

Sometimes they are disobedient and must be disciplined. Israel is seeing God's protective care in their deliverance at this point, but soon they will be in the wilderness seeing God's fatherly discipline as they grumble, moan and often times shame their way right out of blessings from God. You are God's child and that means He is radically committed to your complete and utter development. 

Hebrews 12:7 (ESV) It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

Hebrews 12:11 (ESV) For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

The physical realities of Israel in and from Egypt speak clearly to the spiritual realities of our redemption in Christ. God sends us a deliverer from among people, he faces the enemy head on as our representative head, He completes the work of deliverance on our behalf, and we enjoy the benefits. While we are being delivered God shelters us from the worst things that could have happened to us. There are many who can testify to the strange occurrences of God's protective care BEFORE they were Christian. Then after crossing the line of faith, those same people could share the miserable experiences God allowed right into their lives. God delivers and God disciplines. Its the only way He can make slaves into sons. 

If you're in Christ and experiencing pain in some area, this is the time to believe God's best development is happening in you right now because He cares too much for His own to let them go their own destructive way.