What Our Adversary Causes Us To Do

1 Samuel 1:1-19

In this passage there is a man named Elkanah who has two wives. The wives names are Peninnah and Hannah. Peninnah has several children and Hannah has none. Elkanah is a godly man and goes to Shiloh to worship every year. At this time, he gives portions to both wives. But Peninnah takes this opportunity to exalt herself and provoke Hannah because she cannot bear Elkanah any children.

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

In Hannah and Peninnah we see a type of Satan and us. He is our adversary, and he provokes us sore every chance he gets. Below we will look at some of the things that Hannah did as a result of her adversary provoking her to see how we do the same things when Satan provokes us.

What did Hannah’s Adversary cause her to do?

 1)  Fret (verse 6)

• The word fret means to wear away a substance by friction, to agitate violently, and to tease or irritate.
• Satan loves to make us fret. He loves for us to worry about things we cannot control or pick at us over our failures.
• Look at what the word of God has to say about fretting (Psalm 37:1,7,8 ; Proverbs 19:3 ; 24:19)

 2)  To not eat (verse 7)

• Fretting can lead to not eating both in the physical sense as we see with Hannah. But it can also lead us to not eat in the spiritual sense as well.
• Satan loves to get us into the place where we are not reading our bible.
• Note what God says about how important reading the word of God is (Job 23:12 ; Matthew 4:4)

3)  Become bitter (verse 10)

• Hannah’s bitterness of soul was affecting Elkanah as well as Hannah. This is the trouble with bitterness it affects more than just us (Hebrews 12:15)
• Satan loves to provoke us to the point of bitterness.

4)  Complain (verse 16)

• Notice that it was the Lord who had shut up Hannah’s womb. Many times, Satan will provoke us to complain and when we do we are actually complaining about something that God has done or is allowing to happen to us.
• In Numbers 11:1 when Israel complained that it displeased the Lord this is exactly what our adversary wants us to do is displease the Lord. Remember that our original purpose is to please God (Revelation 4:11)

What was Hannah’s Solution for this problem?

 She poured out her soul unto the Lord (verse 11). In doing this she put the problem in God’s hands which is where it belonged in the first place. Also note the change in her actions (verses 17,18).

Whatever that Satan is using to provoke us sore we must do the same thing that Hannah did and pour out our soul unto the Lord and leave the problem with him.

What Our Adversary Causes Us To Do : Handout

1 Samuel 1:1-19

1)  Who is Hannah’s adversary in this passage?

2)  Who is our adversary?

3)  What does Hannah’s adversary cause her to do?

4)  What was Hannah’s solution for this?