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Exaggerations and Expectations
The fish was thiiiiiiiiis big. I'll die if that happens. You're the best person in the world. You can be anything you want to be. And everyone lived happily ever after. Or so the story goes...
We exaggerate. A ton. It's in our nature. Even Eve did it. In Genesis 2:17, God commanded Adam "not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” When the serpent prompted Eve, saying "Did God really say?," Eve added to the command that they must not even touch the fruit.
When Eve exaggerated, even just that little bit, she also distorted God's expectations. Suddenly, Eve determined that God wouldn't just kill her if she ate it, He would end her life if she even touched it. God seemed even more unfair, making it even easier for Satan to further twist Eve's understanding of God and His will.
Isn't this how it still goes? We know that Satan is a liar. But we forget that exaggeration is a type of lying. Which means we forget that Satan will use exaggeration to shake us up and make us question God and what God expects of us.
Think about some of the ways that exaggeration is used to warp our view of the Lord and His will. From example, how we read "wives submit to your own husbands" and somehow think all women have to submit to all men. There are plenty of spiritual and social ramifications borne of that exaggeration.
Or, consider how often we determine that God's Word is an exaggeration, like when we say that God's consistent condemnation of sexual immorality is outdated or intended only for a certain generation, instead of being absolute. We even add clauses and carefully debate the definition of terms like sexual immorality to change the expectations God has set for us.
Yet God is clear on the matter: "Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it" (Deuteronomy 4:2). "As for God, His way is perfect; the Word of the Lord proves true" (2 Samuel 22:31).
When we trust in the Lord -the person of the Lord as revealed through His Word, Work, and the Holy Spirit- we don't need to exaggerate to know what to do, to justify ourselves, or to understand God. And when we forget that and let those little, tiny inflations alter our view, our vision gets cloudy.
A lot of other things do too:
It's easy for us to feel like God isn't holding up His end of the bargain when we add to His promises -like when we slap a deadline on His provision.
Likewise, it's easy for us to feel like we can't live up to God's expectations of us when we make them so much harder for ourselves or make God so much meaner and less gracious than He is.
Add in the times that we exaggerate the power God that has given to Satan or to us, making God small and our problems looking reaaallly huge.
Or, the instances in which we miss out on blessings and spiritual opportunities because we assume God's Word is exaggerated, so we gossip and swear until our witness is nil.
The world isn't too big. Our sin isn't too much. His expectations aren't too high.
And the Lord isn't too small. His Word isn't too loose or confined by the times. And we aren't too broken or unrighteous to be redeemed by His blood.
Isn't that good news?
"let them come to me for refuge;
let them make peace with me,
yes, let them make peace with me." -Isaiah 27:5
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." -John 14:27
"Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you." -2 Thessalonians 3:16
