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Main Article Content
Why Does the Lord Seek to Kill Moses? Fresh Insights from Reading Exodus 4:24–26 as Moses’s Preparatory, Proleptic Passover
Abstract
The Bridegroom of Blood episode (Exod 4:24–26) is an interpretive minefield. This article offers a fresh yet hermeneutically conservative approach to five of these interpretive uncertainties. It argues that the details of the episode are best understood within the wider narrative of Exodus 2–4. In these chapters, Moses is prepared for his role by experiencing, personally and in advance, redemptive events that Israel will later undergo corporately. Exodus 4:24–26 is shown to be part of this rarely recognized series, constituting a proleptic Passover experience that prepares Moses to lead Israel into their corporate Passover. Finally, the article applies this interpretive lens to five uncertainties in the passage. The outcomes of this application constitute the main contribution of the article and include the novel conclusions that anger is not the Lord’s final motivation for trying to kill Moses, nor is warning Moses the final purpose of the episode.
