didst rise and eat bread.
And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I
said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child
may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring
him back again? _I shall go to him._"--2 Sam. 12:19-23. How could
David be thus sure? He had God's word on which to rest, "The life of
the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it upon the altar to make
atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul."--Lev. 17:11. But because of his sin God chastened him
as long as he lived. "Now therefore the sword shall never depart from
thine house."

Solomon is another case in point. Concerning Solomon God said to
David, "I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commit
iniquity, I will chastise him with the rod of men, and with the
stripes of the children of men; but my mercy shall not depart away
from him."--2 Sam. 7:14, 15.

In chastening, God uses as a rod loss of loved ones (2 Sam. 12:14;
Amos 4:10), loss of property (Amos 4:6-9), loss of health (1 Cor.
11:30), death (1 Cor. 11:30; Amos 4:11; Deut. 32:48-52). Consider the
case of Moses and Aaron: God told them to speak to the rock that it
might bring forth water for the children of Israel. But they wilfully
disobeyed, and instead of speaking to the rock, struck it in anger.
For this wilful sin, as a chastisement, God said to Moses, "Get thee
up into this mountain Abarim, unto Mt. Nebo, which is in the land of
Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan,
which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession: and die in
the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as
Aaron thy brother died in Mt. Hor, and was gathered unto his people:
_because ye trespassed against me_ among the children of Israel at
the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin."--Deut.
32:49-52. Though Moses was thus severely chastened for his wilful sin,
he was not lost, for he was with Elijah on the mountain at the
transfiguration of the Saviour (Matt. 17:1-3).

The lesson needs to be learned by God's children that as certainly as
a redeemed man sins wilfully, whether the sin be great or small, the
chastening rod is sure to fall. "If his children _forsake my law ...
then will_ I visit their transgressions with the rod and their
iniquity with stripes."--Ps. 89:30-32. But God does not send the
chastening in wrath, nor in justice.