Isaiah 10:22

22. The use of the word remnant, though connected with a threatening, is attended with promise.

Though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea So numerous as to be impossible to count them, yet only a “remnant” shall return This is the threatening. But they, the few, shall certainly “return,” and in penitence. This is the promise. A visible Church shall remain, even on the plains of Babylon. And St. Paul (Romans 11:12) reveals a mystery contained in this promise, namely, its enlargement in the upheaval of the Gentile world, whose destiny was so long unexplained. Israel’s abasement becomes thus the occasion of the riches of the Gentiles. Israel revolts. Its consumption is decreed determined on in the divine mind and through the fidelity of the few a great world of new people shall be brought in. The consumption is the result of an overflow with righteousness.