That punishment has to happen. Hashem is going to reveal that Chillul Hashem (desecration of Hashem's name). Rabbi Levitas, who was the leader of Bnei Yisrael, the Jewish people, during the Yavneh period, said the following: Be very, very humble. Be a person who doesn't have ga'avah, who doesn't have arrogance.
Usually, when we're talking about middot (character traits), we try to avoid both of the extremes. We don't want to be polarized. We try to find the shvil hazahav, the middle path, when it comes to each characteristic. This is the one exception. When it comes to arrogance, the rule is: “Be me'od me'od hevei shefal ruach (Be very, very humble).” We repeat the word me'od me'od, be very, very humble. A person should go to the extreme over here because arrogance is an extremely ugly middah, and it's the shoresh, it's the root of many, many aveirot (sins). So a person should do everything he can to go to the opposite extreme so that the ideal... The ideal of ga'avah doesn't take over who he is.
The end of man is worms, bottom line. What are we getting so arrogant about? There's no reason for us to think so highly of ourselves. What we're good for at the end of the day is to be buried in the ground, and we're no more than worm food. That's what we've become. The worms eat our body, and that's really what we have. So to hold of ourselves in such high esteem is a bit humorous.
Rabbi Yochanan ben Beroka says, “Kol hamechalel shem shamayim baseter, nifra'in mimenu bagalui.” Whoever desecrates the name of Hashem in secret, he commits to Chillul Hashem privately. Hashem is going to punish that individual publicly. A person's sin is going to be revealed publicly in order so that a Chillul Hashem doesn't happen on a greater level.
When a righteous man is punished, people look at him and they think that there's no justice. If such a beautiful righteous man could be punished, how could there be a middat ha-rachamim (attribute of mercy), or a middat ha-din (attribute of justice) in this world? That wouldn't make sense. So therefore, if someone does such a Chillul Hashem, reveal that aveirah (sin) that the person is being punished for publicly, in order to avoid more confusion from people.
Echad shogeg ve'echad mezid b'Chillul Hashem. When it comes to the sin of Chillul Hashem, it doesn't matter if a person did it intentionally or unintentionally; both are punished in a public way. If we think of Chillul Hashem, that's not b'kavanah (with intention); that's a person who's putting the name of Hashem out there, even if he does it unintentionally, and it causes embarrassment to Hashem, to the Jewish religion, and to the Jewish people. So therefore, there's no real mistake. If a person was fully conscious that something he's doing could lead to a problem, then a person would be punished for that as well. So a person has to be on his best behavior and make sure that there's not even an unintentional idea of Chillul Hashem.