Of this prophecy it is to be observed that the defilement of the earth, and the wretched condition of the inhabitants thereof described in the opening sentences, and in the remaining verses of the chapter, not quoted, are the result of transgressing the law, changing the ordinances and breaking the "everlasting covenant." The prophet cannot have reference to transgressing the law, and changing the ordinances of the Mosaic covenant, for the Mosaic Law was not an everlasting covenant, [10] but merely a temporary law "added to the Gospel because of transgression." It was a law of carnal commandments to act as a school master to bring the people to Christ; and when Christ came was laid aside, having fulfilled its purpose. [11] It was not, therefore, an everlasting covenant, and hence was not the thing the prophet Isaiah had in mind in his great prophecy. On the other hand, Paul refers to the blood of Christ as "the blood of the everlasting covenant," [12] hence it is the covenant sealed by that blood to which Isaiah must have had reference--the Gospel; and the transgression of its laws, the changing of its ordinances, the breaking of that covenant was to result in making desolate the earth and the inhabitants thereof. As additional evidence that it was not the transgression of the Mosaic Law, nor transgression against any former dispensation of the Gospel, that the prophecy refers to, the reader's attention is called to the fact that the disasters of the great apostasy find their culmination in the burning of the inhabitants of the earth, from which but few men shall be left. That is a calamity that has not yet overtaken men. It is a judgment that will fall upon them in the future. Yet a few shall escape. As the prophet in another place in this remarkable chapter says--referring to the general desolation of the earth and its inhabitants--"When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done. They shall lift up their voices, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea." [13] From which it is to be understood that there will be a few even in those disastrous times, whose righteousness will call down the favor of God. And though the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and the transgressions thereof shall be heavy upon it; though the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth; though as prisoners they shall be gathered into the pit, and will not be visited for many days; though the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, yet shall the Lord of Hosts reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. [14]