Inflexible Principle of Government

Government, or magistracy, is now introduced, the inflexible principles of which are laid down in Ex. 34:7. Let man hear this divine pronouncement: "Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." The sword of justice, as a means of restraint upon fallen humanity, is put into the hands of Noah. This principle soon develops into what we know as civil government.
Adam held sway over the lower creation and Noah over man, as well as over the animal creation. Gen. 9:6 now becomes the penal code for the punishment of human violence: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.”