Verses 43-51. "How he had wrought his signs in Egypt..." Moses and Christ compared and contrasted:- Moses wrought wonders destructive, Christ wonders preservative. Moses turned water into blood, Christ water into wine. Moses brought flies and frogs, locusts and caterpillars, destroying the fruits of the earth, Christ increased a little of these fruits - five loaves and a few fishes - by blessing them and feeding a multitude of men besides women and children. Moses smote both men and cattle with hail, and thunder and lightning, so that they died, Christ made them alive that were dead, and saved from death the diseased and sick. Moses was an instrument to bring all manner of wrath and even angels amongst them, Christ cast out devils and did all manner of good, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, limbs to the lame, cleansing to the leper. Moses slew their first-born, thus causing a horrible cry in all the land of Egypt, Christ saveth all the first-born - or rather by saving them, makes them so - for thus they are called as "the Church of the first-born."
Verse 50. "He made a way in his anger ...." Literally - He weighed a way in his anger. The implication is that God, in His severe punishing of the Egyptians, only did that which was in accordance with His righteousness in Judging sin. He held them in the scales of his justice - weighed them in the balances - and they were found wanting. God's judgments are always righteous and beyond dispute of questioning.
Verse 52. "But made his own people go forth like sheep ..." The judgments of God are always well-earned, but the mercies which we receive are all according to the free grace of God. So - "It is not said that they went forth like sheep, but that he made them go forth like sheep. It is not a description of the character of the people, but a commendation of the providence and goodness of God, by which, after the manner of a good shepherd, He led forth His own people from Egypt."
Verse 57. "But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow." They were true to nothing but hereditary treachery; steadfast in nothing but a falsehood. They knew his truth and forgot it, his will and disobeyed it, his grace and perverted it. Reader, dost thou need a looking glass? See here is one that suits the present expositor well; does it not also reflect thine image? they "turned back." Turned over the old leaf, repeated the same offences, were false and faithless to their best promises, and started aside like an ill-made bow - "a deceitful bow" - which not only fails to send the arrow towards the mark, but springs back to the archer's hurt, and perhaps sends the shaft among his friends to their serious jeopardy. Israel boasted of the bow as the national weapon, and sang the song of the bow; hence a "deceitful bow" is made to be the type and symbol of their own unsteadfastness. God can make men's glory the very ensign of their shame.
Verse 61. "And (God) delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand." The upshot of the "turning back in the day of battle," and the "turning aside like a deceitful bow," was that God removed the Ark - the symbol of "his strength" and "his glory" - from the midst of Israel into their enemy's hand. So, the cry went throughout the land that day - "Ichabod; for the glory has departed from Israel." God will only permit the flaunting of His mercies for a given time, and then can speedily remove the vestiges of His presence and place His glory elsewhere. So verses 67 and 68 tell us, "Moreover, he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: but chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved." God indeed, will ever have His great glory set forth, and where one people will turn away from seeking this, He will soon raise up another. So, Matthew Henry gives us a word to ponder well in our hearts: "the moving of the ark is not the removing of it; Shiloh has lost it, but Israel has not. God will have a church in the world, and a kingdom among men, though this or that place may have its candlestick removed. Nay, the rejection of Shiloh is but the election of Sion."
Verses 69-72. "And he built his sanctuary ... He chose David also his servant ... to feed Jacob, his people, and Israel his inheritance." And as the old Israel enjoyed "the sure mercies of David," let us be comforted in the assurance that "David's greater son" will lead and feed the flock of God until they come to the eternal pastures.