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Noachic commandments, which, according to them, were binding upon all Gentile
proselytes. These were a prohibition(1) of idolatry,
(2) of blasphemy,
(3) of murder,
(4) of incest,
(5) of robbery and theft,
(6) of eating blood and strangled animals, and
(7) an injunction of obedience to magistrates. (Comp. also Acts 15:20)
In confirmation of what God had spoken, He "established" His "covenant" with Noah
and his sons, and in "token" thereof "set," or "appointed," His "bow in the cloud." It
may have been so, that the rainbow was then seen for the first time, although this
does not necessarily follow from the words of Scripture. They only tell us that
henceforth the rainbow was to be a "token" or visible symbol to man of God's
promise no more to destroy all flesh by a flood, and also that He Himself would "look
upon it" as such, so that He might "remember the everlasting covenant between God
and every living creature." The symbol of the rainbow was therefore to be both a sign
and a seal of God's promise. And we can readily understand how impressive,
whenever a storm burst upon the earth, this symbol would have appeared to those
who had witnessed the flood. In the poetical language of a German writer, "The
rainbow, caused by the influence of the sun upon the dark clouds, would show to
man, that what was from heaven would penetrate that which rose from earth; and as it
spanned the gulf between heaven and earth, it would seem to proclaim peace between
God and man; while even the circumstance that it bounded the horizon would
symbolize, how the covenant of mercy extended to earth's utmost bounds."From this scene of intercourse between Noah and God we have to pass to an event in
his history, alas, of a very different character. When Noah - with his three sons,
Shem, Ham, and Japheth - left the ark to become an husbandman, he planted a
vineyard, as Jewish legend has it, from a slip of the vine that had strayed out of
Paradise. But it may boldly be asserted that, except the forbidden fruit itself, none has
brought more sin, ruin, and desolation upon our earth. Whether Noah was
unacquainted with the intoxicating property of the vine, or neglected proper
moderation, the sad spectacle is presented of the aged patriarch, so lately rescued
from the flood, not only falling a victim to drunkenness, but exposing himself in that
state to the impious and vile conduct of his son Ham. As Luther says, "Ham would
not have mocked his father, when overcome with wine, if he had not long before cast
from his soul that reverence which, according to God's command, children should
cherish towards their parents." It is a relief to find the other sons of Noah, so far from
sharing their brother's sin, reverently defending their father from the unnatural(^)