Isaiah 6:13, commentary and pictures

After judgment and desolation and exile the land will not remain wholly forsaken, but a tenth will return. As a teil tree and as an oak look stripped when they cast their leaves yet keep their substance within, so the people retain life through judgment. The holy seed, a holy remnant, will survive as the enduring substance of the people and the land and as the seed from which the future people of God will endure.

The mission to erring Judah would not be wholly fruitless, for a remnant would be saved. The devastation of Judah and its judgment will not defeat or erase God's purpose, which will finally be accomplished. The full fruitage of Isaiah's efforts together with the labors of all God's faithful messengers will finally appear. Because evils that had been multiplying for many generations could not be removed in his day, Isaiah had to be throughout his lifetime a patient, courageous teacher and a prophet of hope as well as doom, lifting his voice in protest against prevailing evils and delivering messages of warning and entreaty to the rebellious nation so that the remnant might be brought about. This assurance of eventual fulfillment gave courage to continue the difficult prophetic work and strengthened hope in the future triumph of the church.

God's work is ordered by divine wisdom and given order and purpose by God as instructor, even when its workings seem difficult to understand. God's workmen should therefore depend on God and trust His guidance rather than human direction or trying to control the work themselves, faithfully doing their appointed part and giving God the glory.