Then the Lord was jealous for his land
    and took pity on his people.

19 The Lord replied to them:

“I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil,
    enough to satisfy you fully;
never again will I make you
    an object of scorn to the nations.

20 “I will drive the northern horde far from you,
    pushing it into a parched and barren land;
its eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea
    and its western ranks in the Mediterranean Sea.
And its stench will go up;
    its smell will rise.”

“The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, buy unoffered prayer.” ~ F.B. Meyer

“My life is one long daily, hourly record of answered prayer. For physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance given marvelously, for errors and dangers averted, for enmity to the Gospel subdued, for food provided at the exact hour needed, for everything that goes to make up life and my poor service. I can testify, with a full and often wonder-stricken awe, that I believe God answers prayer.” ~ Mary Slessor

See what happens when God’s people return to Him with all their hearts; when they seek Him whole-heartedly: He answers their prayers with words and deeds, with provision and deliverance. He speaks and He acts (Do we catch resonances of what happened at the Red Sea in verse 20? I think so).

“Four things let us ever keep in mind: God hears prayer, God heeds prayer, God answers prayer, and God delivers by prayer.” ~ Edward McKendree Bounds.

It seems to me that this is God’s ‘normal’ work: when we walk humbly and repentantly before Him, striving to live with clean consciences, and seeking to keep ‘short accounts’. There will always be mysteries we cannot explain, but God’s usual way with His own is to bless us with answered prayer.