A nice line from a good article by Jason DeRouchie and Jason Meyer on the meaning of “seed” in Galatians 3:16 (contra N. T. Wright) with regard to why exegesis matters so much:
A concern for the reverent and accurate interpretation of God’s word functions simultaneously as both a necessary speed bump that keeps us from running roughshod over the text and a guard rail protecting us from veering off into the ugly ditch of academic gamesmanship. [my emphasis]
They also offer some helpful thoughts on the relationship between exegetical decisions and interpretive frameworks:
[T]here is a vital connection between one’s individual exegetical decisions and one’s collective interpretive framework. In other words, one’s handling of specific texts has direct influence in the shaping of one’s overall interpretive grid, and one’s interpretive grid can have determinative effects on one’s individual interpretations. We are not questioning the viability of operating with an interpretive framework; such a grid can help orient seemingly obscure texts within the grand narrative of Scripture. This interplay need not be a vicious circle, as long as the reader intentionally allows the details of each text to exercise a healthy amount of hermeneutical control that can either further confirm the framework or critique it and challenge it. However, one must stringently avoid imposing one’s overall framework (i.e., eisegesis) upon the text so that the details of the text are conveniently muted or minimized. Interpretive grids wreak hermeneutical havoc when they blind the interpreter from seeing what is really from seeing what is really there in each individual text (i.e., exegesis).