See the series here
A casual reading of Bible stories will reveal what might appear to us to be inconsistencies in whether, when and how The Lord shelters His saints from judgments upon others. Sometimes, He allows us to be exposed to, and even to become collateral damage of those judgments. Other times, in unlimited creative ways, He totally shelters from His judgments on others. Because of His boundless creativity, His ‘sheltering repertoire’ is limitless! So when I perceive repetitive uses of some strategies, my strategic mind perks up and ponders, ‘What’s going on?’ Two seemingly repetitive strategies are the ‘Goshen-effect’ (my term) protective sheltering, and raptures.
The ‘Goshen-Effect’
As expressions of The Lord’s Grace and Mercy, He sometimes extends protections to certain individuals and groups in order to shield them/us from His pending judgments on others. The Goshen Effect (Series) examines how He tailors special protections for those He intends to shelter from judgments on others. The most popular one is how He sheltered the Hebrews slaves from the impacts of the last 7 (of 10) plagues He rained down on ancient Egypt, before the exodus. Part 2 of that series explains why He likely did not shelter them during the initial 3 plagues: They were largely scattered across Egypt searching for hay to make bricks, after Pharaoh (in response to Moses’ initial ‘Let My people go!’ command) refused to let the Egyptians deliver hay to them in Goshen. (See: Exodus 5) They might have returned home, to the land of Goshen, after the national impacts of the first 3 plagues. The series also notes several subsequent ‘Goshen-effect’-type protections across The Bible, including some pending ones.
