Although God forgave the sins of Jacob and David, and the other Old
Testament saints, yet there were certain consequences of their sins
which those saints had to suffer after they were forgiven.
If a man gets drunk and goes out and breaks his leg, so that it must
be amputated, God will forgive him if he asks it, but he will have to
hop around on one leg all his life. A man may sow thistle-seed with
grain-seed in a moment of pique against his master, and the master
may forgive him, but the man will have to reap the thistles with the
grain.