Genesis 9:23
And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.
Genesis 9:23 belongs to the inspired, divine words of Genesis, told with simple, faithful truthfulness because the principles of justice require a faithful narration of facts. Noah was a literal person who lived, a man favored of God and entrusted with great responsibility, and the flood was a fact in history. Soon after the beginning of the world he was overcome by temptation to wine, became intoxicated with wine in his tent, sinned, and lay uncovered.
Shem and Japheth responded with respect, care, and true filial love and sympathy: they laid a garment upon both their shoulders, went backward, and covered their father's disgrace without looking on his shame, their faces backward so they saw not his nakedness. They would not make capital of his disgrace to resist his counsels, disregard his authority, criticize or mock him, and by covering him they rebuked the disrespect of those who exposed him. Their conduct contrasts with their brother, who was so debased by wine that he lost all sense of propriety concerning his father's nakedness and exposed him with disrespect and derision.
Their action shows the duty under the fifth commandment to honor a father even in disgrace, requiring tender devotion, soothing comfort, forbearing compassion, and kindly care that relieves anxiety instead of irritating and crossing him when his mind is overwrought by care and perplexity, and it stands as an example for all sons as long as time shall last. God blessed the faithful sons who honored their father and remembered their posterity for good, while the unfilial sin of exposure and derision brought a curse on the offender's descendants affecting posterity, a curse that has never been lifted. The days of Noah prefigure the present age before Christ appears in the clouds of heaven, with human nature uninfluenced by the Spirit of God the same then as now and the character of that generation characteristic of this age, so the Old Testament cannot be divorced from the New Testament.
The account of a favored man's fall is recorded for the benefit and warning of all who read it and all following generations, to teach obedience to the law of God and the certainty of retributive justice and the penalty of disobedience, even as people strive, waver, and fall into error now. It shows that God's people have faults and follies and struggles and falls, and if they had been without foible they would have been more than human; seeing where they struggled and fell, where they took heart again and conquered through the grace of God and gained fresh vigor to rise above their evil nature, desponding hearts are encouraged not to despair but to renew the conflict, press on, and surmount obstacles. The incident proves that intemperance has cursed the world almost from its birth, and that indulgence of appetite is a weight that those running for eternal life must lay aside in order to run with patience and win the prize.