Is an Arduino Uno required to send any sort of command to a NodeMCU?
With erase_flash you deleted the AT firmware from flash. You can load it back with esptool or with Flash Download Tool (Windows only).

AT firmware download page

Addresses for 4 megabyte flash (more in readme.md of AT firmware):

esptool.py -p /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART write_flash 0x0 boot_v1.7.bin 0x01000 at/512+512/user1.1024.new.2.bin 0x3fc000 esp_init_data_default.bin 0xfe000 blank.bin 0x3fe000 blank.bin