Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 39:1 (Apr 2025)
Article: Why Does The Lord Seek To Kill Moses? Fresh Insights From Reading Exodus 4:24–26 As Moses’s Preparatory, Proleptic Passover
Author: Daniel Webster

SATS 39:1 (April 2025) p. 43

Why Does The Lord Seek To Kill Moses? Fresh Insights From Reading Exodus 4:24–26 As Moses’s Preparatory, Proleptic Passover

Daniel Webster

Namibia Evangelical Theological Seminary

About The Author

Daniel Webster holds an M.Th. from Moore Theological College in Sydney. He is an Australian privileged to live and teach in Namibia at the Namibia Evangelical Theological Seminary. He lectures in Systematic Theology, Biblical Studies, and practical ministry. His research interests include African contextual theology and the use of Jesus Tradition in the Pauline Epistles.

Email: [email protected]

This article: https://www.sats.ac.za/conspectus/does-the-lord-seek-to-kill-moses-fresh-insights https://doi.org/10.54725/conspectus.2025.1.3

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.

Keywords

Exodus 4:24–26, Moses, foreshadow, Passover, preparation

1. Introduction

Keller (2000, 200–201) may be correct to label Exodus 4:24–26 “the most enigmatic passage in the Pentateuch.” Its interpretive uncertainties are numerous. For example: How does Zipporah know to circumcise her son? What does bridegroom of blood mean? The confusion is exacerbated by the ambiguity in the referents of certain Hebrew pronouns (Alexander 2016, 106). For example, who is the Lord

SATS 39:1 (April 2025) p. 44

seeking to kill? Moses, Gershom, or Eliezar? Or even more significantly, why is the Lord se...