God saved Noah from the worldwide flood in one of the greatest stories ever told, and then Noah went out and got drunk. That should certify the Bible in the genre of realism and not religious propaganda.

But this is not what interests me here. Noah was on balance a good guy, as proved by the compliment God gives him in Ezekiel: “If I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, … even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter” (14:19,20).

What interests me is the three sons’ response to their father’s little lapse. “Ham … saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness” (Genesis 9:22,23).

Have you ever done something pretty bad, and then hoped to God that your friend who knew about it wouldn’t spread it around—you know, “pray about it” with someone? I don’t mean that your friend should be involved in a “cover up” but rather that your friend should “cover” you. There is a difference, and wisdom and love will show us when to do an Ephesians 5:11 (expose it) and when to do a Proverbs 17:9 (cover it).

Noah was on to something when he blessed his sons who covered his nakedness. When a neighbor sins, we can be gleeful or we can mourn. We can broadcast or we can cover. We can hate to criticize and do it only with pain, or we can revel in it.