The illustration is of a tree whose leaves fall off in the cold of winter. It appears to be a dead tree. The nation Israel would be that tree. The LORD purposed to ravage the nation by the frigid winds of his wrath, one war after another, until it appeared a dead, leafless, lifeless, tree, because the willful rejection of a multitude who would not hear him. Yet, according to the sovereign purpose and predestinating grace of that same God, a tenth would remain and return. Though they would be all but consumed, still, within the people and within that nation, was the Holy Seed the substance--the Life--thereof.

It was for the sake of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who would be of the stock of Abraham, that the nation Israel was not completely destroyed even in Isaiah's day. It was for the sake of a very small remnant who would be born from the loins of this rebellious people and who would be born a second time by the Spirit of God, that the LORD was longsuffering. So the true sons and daughters of God--his true spiritual nation--is taught that for the sake of his Holy Seed, the Son of God, and a holy seed in him, the Lord has deferred his anger throughout all time and even now.