Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 45:17

"[But] Israel shall be saved by Jehovah with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be put to shame nor confounded world without end." — Isaiah 45:17 (ASV)

But Israel shall be saved - Referring primarily to the Jews in Babylon, but affirming the universal truth that the true Israel , that is, the people of God, will be saved from all their trials and will be brought to His everlasting kingdom.

In the Lord - By Jehovah - ביהוה bayohvâh; Septuagint, Ἀπὸ κυρίου Apo kuriou. It will be done by the power of Yahweh and will be traced to Him alone. No human power could have saved them from their captivity in Babylon; no human power can save the soul from hell.

With an everlasting salvation - It will not be a temporary deliverance, but it will be perpetual. In heaven His people will meet no more foes; they will suffer no more calamity; they will be driven into no exile; they will never die.

You will not be ashamed nor confounded - This means:

1. That they will never find God to fail, that is, to be either unable or unwilling to befriend and rescue them (Psalms 46:1).

2. That they will never be ashamed, that is, have cause to regret that they had put their trust in Him.

The idea is that those who become His friends never regret it and are never ashamed of it. The time can never come when anyone who has become a true friend of God will regret it.

In prosperity or adversity, in sickness or health, at home or abroad, in safety or in danger, in life or in death, there will be no situation in which they will be ashamed that they gave their hearts to God.

There have never been any true Christians who regretted that they became the friends of the Redeemer. Their religion may have exposed them to persecution; their names may have been cast out as evil; they may have been stripped of their property; they may have been thrown into dungeons, laid on the rack, or led to the stake; but they have not regretted that they became the friends of God. Nor will they ever regret it.

No man on a dying bed regrets that he is a friend of God. No man at the judgment bar will be ashamed to be a Christian. And in all the interminable duration of the world to come, the period never will, never can arrive when anyone will ever be ashamed that he gave his heart early and entirely to the Redeemer.

Why then should not all become His friends? Why will people not pursue that course which they know they can never regret, rather than the ways of sin and folly, which they know must cover them with shame and confusion hereafter?