Charles Spurgeon Commentary Isaiah 6:13

"And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall in turn be eaten up: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth, when they are felled; so the holy seed is the stock thereof." — Isaiah 6:13 (ASV)

But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

And, therefore, the Jewish nation is not destroyed, but still exists, and the Church of God is not destroyed, despite all that happens to it. There is a substance in it, according to the election of grace, for which may God be praised.

But yet –

You never get this deep bass note of divine justice without having a "but yet" to accompany it.

In it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

When the oak sheds all its leaves, it is not dead; there is living sap that will again cause the tree to be verdant. Though the nation was to be brought very low, there was still to be left a remnant according to the election of grace.

Sin never reaches such a point in God's people that grace does not triumph. Still, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

This is a fearsome chapter; it shows the sovereignty of God in a lurid light, and reveals how, when sin comes to a certain point, the Lord gives people up and leaves them to the blindness of their heart, so that even the means of grace, the prophetic message, becomes a means of condemnation to them.

Now we are going to read in one of the many places in the New Testament in which this passage is quoted.