The Hannah Spirit, Part 3: The Altar of Provocation

Have you ever carried a pain that already hurt on its own... only to have someone keep reaching for it?

That's where we find Hannah.

The Bible says, “And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb.” (1 Samuel 1:6)

Peninnah didn't accidentally touch Hannah’s tender place. She provoked her; she pressed on it. She knew where Hannah hurt.....and she kept aiming there.

There's something especially cruel about being wounded in a place you cannot fix, isn't there?

Hannah couldn't open her own womb. She couldn't force the promise or produce the answer. And the very place she couldn't change became the place that another woman chose to mock.

That's provocation. And provocation...well it isn't just irritation. It's pressure with a purpose.

The verse says Peninnah provoked Hannah “for to make her fret.” In other words, she wanted a reaction. She wanted to disturb her peace. She wanted to stir her up, shake her, trouble her, and pull something out of her.

That's what provocation does! 

It pokes pain and then waits for proof that it worked.

It wants you to answer from the wound.

It wants you to speak from the bruise.

It wants you to step out of the Spirit and into the flesh.

But.....Hannah shows us another altar, doesn't she?

Let's call it.... the altar of provocation.

This is the place where she has to decide what she'll do with pain when somebody keeps pressing on it.

Will she become bitter?  Defensive? Will she become like the one provoking her?

Will she let someone else’s cruelty choose her response?

The Bible doesn't give us a record of Hannah attacking Peninnah back. It doesn't show us Hannah matching her words, returning the insults, manipulating things to hurt her back, or trying to win the household war.

Instead, she eventually takes it to the Lord.

That doesn't mean the provocation did not affect her though. Scripture tells us it did. She weptm she did't eat. She was grieved. 

I mean, she was human, after all.

Being spiritual doesn't mean that you don't feel the poke; it just means that you learn where to take the pain after the poke has happened.  

If I could get you to grab hold of anything in this post, it's that.  That's something we need to understand.

The Hannah spirit isn't untouched. It's not pretending the words didn't hurt. Hannah was deeply affected by what was happening around her!

But she didn't let provocation become her master.

Peninnah may have had access to Hannah’s environment, but she did NOT get ownership of Hannah’s altar.

Now, I think THAT in and of itself is powerful!

Because there will always be people, circumstances, memories, accusations, or even voices from the enemy that try to press on that sore place.

They'll remind you of what has not happened yet.

They'll mock the waiting.

They'll question the promise.

They'll point to the empty place and call it evidence against you.

They'll try to make your waiting feel like shame.

But the barren place wasn't proof that God had rejected Hannah, please know that. 

The delay wasn't proof that God had forgotten her. And the ache wasn't proof that her story was over.

It was simply the place where God

 had not yet brought forth 

what He was going to bring forth.

And THAT'S why provocation is so dangerous! It tries to make you interpret your life before God is even finished speaking.

Peninnah saw Hannah’s lack and used it against her.
God saw Hannah’s lack and used it as the place where a prophet would be born.
Same place.
Different voice.

That's why we have to be careful who we let interpret our pain.

The voice of provocation will ALWAYS turn that unfinished place into shame.

But the voice of God can turn the unfinished place into an altar!

Hannah could've spent her life fighting Peninnah. She could've made Peninnah the center of the story.  

But Hannah’s TRUE appointment 

wasn't with Peninnah.

It was with God!

Sometimes the person provoking you is just exposing the place that needs to be poured out before the Lord.

Don't get me wrong, that doesn't excuse cruelty. It doesn't make wrong behavior right. But it DOES remind us that our response matters.

The enemy LOVES to use provocation to pull us out of position and he knows exactly where to poke!

He knows the delayed places, the grieving places, the places where we feel overlooked, misunderstood, unfruitful, or forgotten. And...... if he can get us to react from that place, he can distract us from bringing it to God!!!

But Hannah did not stay at the table forever.

She rose! (just writing that causes a spirit of excitement to rise up within me!)

That'll preach!

Listen, at some point, the altar HAS to become louder than the provocation.

At some point, we have to rise from the table where pain keeps being poked and get into the presence of the One who knows what to do with it!

THAT is the Hannah spirit.

A woman who feels deeply....but still chooses the altar.

A woman who is provoked.....but not possessed by the provocation.

A woman who is pressed....but not poisoned.

A woman....who REFUSES to let the adversary have the final word over what God has not yet finished!

Oh, there WILL be seasons when pain gets poked.

But you need to make up your mind that the poke does NOT get to prophesy.

God does!