When No'ah came out of the Ark his first step was to render thanks unto God. He erected an altar of heaped up stones and made blood offerings upon it. These offerings were accepted by God, who then made a solemn covenant with No'ah. In this covenant God declared that He would not again destroy man and beast by a deluge, and as a sign of this promise He placed in the Heavens what we call the rainbow. This token stands as a reminder to humanity that the seasons will come and go in regular order, that there shall always be planting time and harvest season, and that as time shall last God shall never bring upon the world so great a destruction,
The covenant which God made with No'ah included other important matters. Provision was made for the continuity and perpetuity of human life upon earth through the institution of marriage, for the sustenance of mankind through the fruitfulness of the earth, for the protection of human life from man's inhumanity to man, and for the perpetuation of religious knowledge to all the unborn posterity.
No'ah lived for three hundred and fifty years after the deluge, his sons reared large families, and the populating of the world was begun anew.
There was, however, a tragic sin in the life of this noble patriarch after the effects of the flood had passed away, and before his final blessing upon his children and their descendants.
He resumed his former vocation of farming, and turned to the cultivation of a vineyard. One sorry day he began to make wine, and was presently tempted into over-indulgence. Though not at first intending to prostrate himself beneath the power of strong drink, he was gradually led on by the gratification which it offered, finally losing all control of himself and becoming intoxicated.
This sin of drunkenness by No'ah was the occasion of a great wrong by his son Ham which brought him and his descendants under a severe curse from God.
