When King David committed his appalling double sin, Nathan the prophet confronted him: “Why have you despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife… Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me” (2 Samuel 12:9–10).

David had used the sword to destroy the house of Uriah, and now the sword would wreak havoc on his own house. The infant son he fathered by Uriah’s wife died. Another son was killed in a war of rebellion against David. Another raped his own sister and was murdered by his vengeful brother. Another was assassinated as a rival to the son who succeeded David.

Sometimes, God will mercifully withhold the punishment of His child, even relieving him of the consequences of his sin. At other times, even if the believer repents and God forgives him, the discipline of punishment must be gracefully administered. It will hurt, but the hurt is meant to help. In fact, God’s discipline never involves His wrath; His wrath is reserved for the unbeliever.

Old Testament scholar Theodore Laetsch makes this point very clear: “His plans concerning His people are always thoughts of good, of blessing. Even if He is obliged to use the rod, it is the rod not of wrath, but the Father’s rod of chastisement for their temporal and eternal welfare. There is not a single item of evil in His plans for his people, neither in their motive, nor in their conception, nor in their revelation, nor in their consummation.”5

God Disciplines to Protect Us

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.

—2 CORINTHIANS 12:7

The speaker in this verse, the apostle Paul, indicates that he did not suffer because he had committed the sin of pride; rather, his suffering was to keep him from becoming proud, or “exalted above measure.” It was protective discipline meant to prevent a soul-destroying problem. While we do not know what Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was, we do know that he suffered greatly because of it. Three times he asked God to remove the thorn, and three times the Lord denied his request.

Instead, God gave His apostle the grace to endure the pain. God’s preventive discipline greatly increased Paul’s effectiveness. He wrote that his weakness had actually made him stronger (2 Corinthians 12:8–10). It forced him to depend on God’s strength instead of his own.