Elijah and the Secret of his Power by F B Meyer

This little book printed 49 years ago is full of challenge.

Each chapter is a sermon in itself!

In chapter 1 The source of Elijah's strength, Meyer looks at the background to 1 Kings chapter 17.  The very start of the chapter with the word "And" indicates that it is a continuation of what has gone before.  It is actually worth reading 1 Kings 16 because it really shows you that the land of Israel was in an awful state due to idolatory.  How had this happened?  

"When men have done their worst, and finished, it is the time for God to begin.  And when God begins He is likely with one blow, to reverse all that has been done without Him and to write some pages of human history, which will be a lesson and an inspiration to all coming time."

By this stage in the Bible the land of Israel was divided.  After Solomon died his kingdom split in 2.  The southern under Rehoboam his son and the northern under Jeroboam.  Jeroboam decided to set up 2 temples, one in Dan in the extreme north and the other in Bethel in the south.  In each he placed a golden calf that God might be worshipped.  This was in fact breaking the second commandment of the Lord.  After many revolutions and much bloodshed, the kingdom passed into the hands of a military adventurer Omri.  The son of this man was Ahab - "he did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him."  He was a weak man, the tool of a crafty, unscrupulous and cruel woman and some of the worst crimes that have ever been committed have been wrought by weak men, at the instigation of worse but stronger spirits than themselves.  Jezebel his wife came from Tyre and she brought with her a hereditary religion.  When she came to Israel she established a temple to Astarte in Jezreel and supported 450 priests personally.  Then she and Ahab built a temple for Baal in Samaria, the capital of the kingdom.  The whole land seemed apostate.  Of all the thousands of Israel only 7000 remained who had not bowed the knee or kissed the hand to Baal.  They were paralysed with fear.  In fact Elijah didn't even know of their existence.

So who was Elijah?  He came from Gilead which was to the east of Jordan.  These people were wild, lawless and unkempt.  They kept flocks of sheep.  As Elijah grew up he became characterised by an intense religious earnestness.  He was "very jealous for the Lord God of hosts."  He had been taught in scripture but when he learnt of what was happening across the Jordan he became very angry.  The problem was - what should he do about it?  He could do only one thing - pray.  James 5 records that "he prayed earnestly that it might not rain".  As Elijah prayed he became convicted to go and speak to Ahab.  Whatever might be the hazard to himself, both king and people must be made to connect their calamities with the true cause.  The drought in the land was due to his prayers.

When Elijah went to Ahab it was the old religion against the new, moral strength against moral weakness.  Elijah's strength lay not in his surroundings.  He was of humble extraction.  He had no special training.  His first words to Ahab were "As Jehovah liveth."  To everyone else Jehovah might seem dead but to him he was the one supreme reality of life.  Elijah went on to say "Before whom I stand."  He was very conscious of the presence of God in his life.  He was convicted of being chosen by God as his called and recognised servant and messenger.

Elijah's name means "Jehovah is my God" but there is another translation - "Jehovah is my strength".  God was his strength and therefore he was not afraid.

When I read this first chapter I was struck by how ordinary a man Elijah was.  He just wanted to see the people come back to God.  What a conviction was on his heart.  How did he think he could do that?  He wasn't anything special or important.  Yet time and again scripture really makes it clear - if we are wholly committed to the Lord we can and should do what God calls us to do.  We don't need any special training, just his commission to go and hasn't he given that to every one of us.  Elijah knew the Lord personally, he talked with him in prayer and as he talked the way ahead was revealed to him.  Elijah knew the scriptures, had read about what had happened in the past to Israel and he was concerned that the people had now turned away from God completely.  Does this not challenge me when I look around and see how many have turned from God in these days but what am I doing about it?  Am I talking to God and asking for his plan and purpose to be worked out?  I see in Jezebel something of what is in people's hearts today.  They are worshipping gods of their own making - wealth in particular and yet it does not last and will crumble like everything else.  God is still looking for Elijah's, ordinary men and women to do great things for him.  I might not be called to stand in a palace but if anything from Elijah's life I can see the power of prayer.  Elijah had such conviction that he was not afraid to go in and speak to the king.  The secret of his strength was definitely in God alone.

In chapter 2 Beside the Dying Brook, Meyer shows the successive steps in God's education of his servants.    Elijah had to learn to take one step at a time.  I am sure he wondered as he travelled to the palace - what will I do once I have finished speaking to Ahab?  We read "the word of the Lord came to him saying Get thee hence, hide thyself by the brook Cherith."  It was only after the book dried up that God then came again and said to him "Arise get thee to Zarephath."

F B Meyer writes "I like that phrase 'the word of the Lord came to him.'  He did not need to go to search for it; it came to him.  And so it will come to you.  It may come through the Word of God; or through a distinct impression made on your heart by the Holy Ghost or through circumstances; but it will find you out, and tell you what you are to do, 'Lord, what wilt, Thou have me to do?  And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do.' (Acts 9 verse 6)  It may be that for long you have had upon your mind some strong impression of duty; but you have held back, because you could not see what the next step would be.  Hesitate no longer!  Step out upon what seems to be the impalpable mist; you will find a slab of adamant beneath your feet; and every time you put your foot forward, you will find that God has prepared a stepping stone, and the next, and the next; each as you come to it.  The bread is by the day.  The manna is every morning.  The strength is according to the moment's need, God does not give all the directions at once, lest we should get confused.  He tells us just as much as we can remember and do.  Then we must look to Him for more; and so we learn, by easy stages, the sublime habits of obedience and trust." 

Elijah had to be taught the value of a hidden life.  Sometimes when we feel on fire for God and are ready and willing to do whatever God asks of us, we learn the lesson of it not being God's plan for us to do it there and then.  What is our Cherith?  A sickness?  Disappointment?  Bereavement?  We cannot give out unless we have previously taken in.

Elijah learned to trust God completely.  When we find that God is even better than His word, our faith grows exceedingly and we advance to further feats of faith and service.  This is how God trains his young eaglets to fly.  At last nothing is impossible.  This is the key to Elijah's experience.  "So he went and did according to the word of the Lord."

God told Elijah "I have commanded the ravens to fee there".  If we are in the place where God wants us to be he will work a direct miracle, sooner than suffer us to perish for lack.  The manna always accompanies the pillar of cloud.

God's servants are often called to sit by dying brooks - "it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up."  Did Elijah begin to wonder what next?  What is our dying brook?  Popularity?  Health?  Money?  Friendship?  Why does God do this - we often ask this over and over again in our lives but God wants to teach us not to trust in his gifts but in himself.  He wants to drain us of self.  Too often we rely on the brook Cherith when we should be relying on God himself.

There are so many lessons to learn here - the waiting for God's will to be revealed.  So often it is easy to rush ahead and see what it over the next hill when God is asking us to wait.  We live in a world where everything is so fast and speed is of the essence.  Sometimes God has to slow it all down to be able to speak to us.  It is in those quiet times when God really speaks and we really listen that we can know God's presence as a reality in our lives.  So many scoff at this idea of waiting on God but when we look back on our lives we can see the hand of God and know with assurance that he has lead us through each step of the way, one step at a time.  So unbelievable that these birds fed Elijah but then wait a minute ... did we believe that God would do what he has done in our lives?  Just when we needed it, a miracle was given too us?  There is also the lesson to learn that people change, circumstances change and our lives are changed too.  Sometimes we are given devastating news that will change our perspective on life in general but it is in those times that we know God is with us helping us take the next step trusting him entirely.

In chapter 3 Ordered to Zarephath, Meyer looks at Elijah on the move.  "It came to pass after awhile that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land."  Week after week with unfaltering and steadfast spirit, Elijah watched that dwindling brook; often tempted to stagger through unbelief but refusing to allow his circumstances to come between himself and God.  God's plans for Elijah demanded implicit obedience - "So he arose and went to Zarephath."  We do not win salvation by our obedience; that is altogether the gift of God, to be received by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ our Lord.  But being saved we must obey.  Zarephath means  a smelting furnace.  It lay outside the land of Canaan, the land from which Jezebel had come from.  When Elijah arrived in the town he saw a woman gathering sticks to prepare her evening meal.  The Lord had told Elijah "I have commanded a widow woman to sustain thee."  There was something very different about this woman.  She must have been prepared for Elijah's visit for she was not surprised at his request for a cup of water and a morsel of bread.  All she had was a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in the cruse.  She was about to make the last meal for herself and her son.  How depressing this must have sounded to Elijah after his long journey and he must have wondered why God was sending him here.  Elijah's faith was real - he told the woman to go and make her meal but then he added "the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth."  The woman accepted Elijah's word implicitly.

Elijah was obedient to God and listened very carefully to what he was being told.  He believed that God had sent him to this woman for a reason.  He trusted God implicitly that he would not fail him even now.  Elijah showed remarkable faith and belief in God to honour his word that he would be fed and kept alive by this widow woman.  This spoke to me very clearly about my own depth of faith in God.  Do I trust him entirely to work out the end from the beginning?

In chapter 4 Meyer talks about the Holy Spirit living in Elijah.  "The spirit of Elijah" was a familiar phrase on the lips of the sons of the prophets - 2 Kings 2 verse 15.  That gift of the Holy Spirit was given to Elijah through faith.  Meyer goes on to show that the Holy Spirit is promised to every one of us but there are conditions.  First we must be emptied.  For Elijah this started at the brook, then on his long journey to Zarephath and while he lived there.  For Elijah it took 3 and a half years.

The Holy Spirit works with and through the Word. If we neglect the reverent study of Scripture we cut ourselves off from the very vehicle through which God's Spirit enters human spirits. And this is the great fault of our times. Christian people will attend conventions, plunge into all kinds of Christian work, read many good books about the Bible and Christian living but they give the Bible itself the most cursory and superficial heed. And it is for this reason that the Bible does not speak to them. There is no book that will so repay time spent over its pages as the Word of God. A neglected Bible means a starved and strength less spirit; a comfort less heart; a barren life and a grieved Holy Ghost. If the people who are now perpetually running about to meetings for crumbs of help and comfort would only stay at home and search their Bibles, there would be more happiness in the Church and more blessing on the world.

The Holy Spirit that lived in Elijah revealed himself in those very traits which must always be His fruits: gentleness under provocation; steadfastness in trial; power in prayer; life victorious over death.  Just look at what the widow woman said of Elijah "I know that thou art a man of God." (1 Kings 17 verse 24)  The widow was convinced of sin and led to the truth of God.

This chapter really struck a familiar chord in my own soul as I feel like Meyer that the greatest need today is for people to get back to reading God's word for themselves.  So often people live on what is preached in a meeting but they never know the reality of it in their daily lives.  The application of God's word is as important as reading and so many today will admit that they have never actually read the bible from Genesis to Revelation.  Instead they live on passages they are familiar with and feel are appropriate for their lives.  People need to be able to move on with God and the only way to do that is to find out what God is staying for the present, not the past.  God's Holy Spirit is given to us all at the time of conversion but so often we never experience that gift and never exercise it.  Jesus himself told his disciples that when the Holy Spirit came he would leave them into all truth.  We need the Holy Spirit every moment we live to show us how to live and we can only experience that presence when we read God's word.

In chapter 5 The Test of the Home Life, Meyer focuses on what happened in the widow woman's home.  Meyer states that it is one thing to commune with God in the solitudes of nature and to perform splendid acts of devotion and zeal for him in the presence of thousands but it is quite another to walk with him day by day in the midst of a home with its many calls for the constant forgetfulness of self.

For Elijah he was content to remain in this widow woman's home.  There was actually only enough to meet their daily needs.  God only provides for us one day at a time.  Think of the manna in the desert.  The children of Israel only received enough for that particular day.  If they collected more it went mouldy.  God has prepared a supply for our need and He will deliver it to time, if only we will trust him.

One day the widow woman's son fell ill.  Suddenly the widow woman became angry and claimed that Elijah had come to her to make her aware of her past sin.  Elijah simply said to her "Give me thy son."  This was practical godliness.  Many people believe they have laid all on the altar for God and have been filled with the Holy Ghost.  But when the least thing happens to upset them they become very angry.  They have not learned of God's special grace.  He who first led them to Jesus is able to make them meek with His meekness and gentle with His gentleness; He can give them victory over their natural infirmities, as well as over all conscious sin; He can work so great a transformation within them.  Somewhere in the background of this widow woman's life there was a incident which now reminded her of some sin in her life.  What brought it to her memory now?  it was a combination of 2 things - Elijah's holy life with her own sorrow.

Elijah took the child and carried him to his own room.  He laid him on his own bed and then he cried out to God.  Then he "measured himself upon the child" and continued to cry out to God.  How wonderful to read what happened next - "the Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the soul of the child came unto him again and he revived."  Elijah gave her son back to his mother.  The woman said "Now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth."  Her work was small; her conception obscure; her home Gentile and heathen; and yet because her motives were noble and her spirit in sympathy with Elijah's it was announced by him at whose bar we must all stand for our reward that she had done what she could and that her crown should shine as brightly as that placed on the brow of the prophet of God.  We are rewarded, not according to our sphere, or the results of our work but according to the sincerity and beauty of our motives and these may be as lofty in an obscure widow as in Elijah himself.

An amazing miracle of raising a child back to life yet in this chapter Meyer focuses firstly on Elijah and his reaction and then when the miracle has taken place on the widow woman's reaction.  God had placed Elijah in this home for a reason.  The miracle of the barrel of meal previously had been amazing in itself but this was so much more.  The Lord brought Elijah to this home for a purpose.  The widow woman initially believed there was something different in Elijah that she wanted for herself but then she was reminded of something in her past that needed to be dealt with.  So often God prompts us and reminds us of something that we need to deal with.  There is within each of us a consciousness, an awareness which God alone gives and works through.  Isn't it amazing that God knows all about us but yet still wants to love us and use us for his honour and glory.  This widow woman would be such a witness to others in her home town.  The evidence was visual - her son had been ill then died but suddenly he was brought back to life again - how?  Living with this man she would have had such a witness before her and he lived up to what he believed.  He was in hiding from a man but not hiding from God.  Elijah was so humble in the way he performed this miracle, he knew it was God alone who could raise this boy back to life.  He relied so much on God - what a lesson to learn.  Even in the insignificant mundane things of life God is there and will continue to show himself even when we don't realise it.

In chapter 6 I read about a man called Obadiah in 1 Kings 18.  He was someone who claimed to have feared God from his youth and when Elijah met him he was governor in Ahab's palace.  A weak character at best.  His one great claim to fame in honouring God (in his own words) was hiding 100 of the prophets of God in a cave during the time of persecution by Jezebel the queen.  He pleaded with Elijah not to disappear again as he went to tell Ahab he had found him, to do so would mean his life would be taken from him and he was having a wonderful life at present.

3 years previously Elijah had presented himself before Ahab the King and told him there was going to a drought and a famine.  As a result of that Ahab sought to find Elijah and kill him.  But God hid Elijah by the brook Cherith and fed him by ravens.  Then the brook dried up and he was told to go to a widow woman in Zarephath.  Something I didn't realise before but this particular town was in the land Jezebel had come from.  No way was anyone going to think of finding Elijah there - hasn't God got a sense of humour about him?  The miracle of the barrel of meal and cruse of oil was performed and also the bringing back of the widows son to life occurred during Elijah's time there.  Imagine living in a land where false worship took place all around you.  Yet God must have been working in this widow's heart to allow her to have Elijah in her home.  Gradually she came to faith in God and when her son was raised to life again she acknowledged that faith.  I am sure she must have been the talk of the neighbourhood!  Now after all this time God was telling Elijah to go and meet Ahab.

During all this time the people were experiencing the worst famine ever and Samaria seems to have been hit the hardest.  All Ahab really cared about though were his horses and he sent Obadiah to look for grass for them.  Imagine Obadiah being asked to do something as ridiculous as this when all the people around him were starving to death.

Obadiah pleaded with Elijah when he met him and this is how pathetic a believer he was.  He wanted to do something great for the Lord but not at the expense of his power, his position and his influence.  When Ahab finally met Elijah he called him a troublemaker.  You see having Obadiah under his roof in the palace had no effect on him.  Obadiah was happy to compromise his faith.

How Obadiah reminds us of many today.  They are all around us.  They know the right and are secretly trying to do it but they say as little about religion as they can.  They are as nervous as being identified by declared Christians as Obadiah was when Elijah sent him to Ahab.

You see the Bible never once talks about any particular saint who moved his times from within - all without.  It is not enough to shelter the prophets, we must go and show ourselves to the king!  God was more real to Elijah than he was to Obadiah.

"We may be as sugar; but we must also be like salt, that stays the progress of corruption.

When salt has lost its savour it does not sting though it is rubbed into the wound.

There is no higher testimony to the consistency of our life than the hearty hatred of the Ahabs around us."

We need to remember Jesus' own words - it is not us the world will hate but it is Christ himself.

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.  Rejoice and be exceeding glad.

The challenge today is - will we take our stand for Christ in these difficult days?  Will we stand up and be counted as one of Christ's own?  Or will we compromise like Obadiah did thinking we are doing the best we can?  Or will we be like Elijah, prepared to meet the king head on and suffer the consequences whatever they will be.  Elijah probably did not know what was ahead, he was only given one piece of the jigsaw and as he obeyed he was given another piece.  The very first words of the chapter say that the word of the Lord came to him and that word was go.  The obedience Elijah demonstrated "And Elijah went."  He demonstrated faith in God - "as the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely shew myself unto him today."

In chapter 7 The Plan of Campaign, there is a wonderful prayer in 1 Kings 18 that I have never really thought about before.  "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant and that I have done all these things at thy word.  Hear me O Lord hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou hast turned their heart back again."

Elijah stood before King Ahab and told him to bring all the people who opposed the Lord to Mount Carmel.  There were 450 prophets of Baal and another 400 who ate at Jezebel's table, ie they were her own private prophets.

In the prayer Elijah prayed we can see he had a real passion for God.  He didn't care what would happen to himself.  All he wanted was for the people to realise who God was.  So often when we are playing our part in God's kingdom we are only interested in our own little part, our own little church, our own outreach to people that we become blinkered to everything else that is going on around us.  It is no wonder that we have such a small measure of success.  We need to learn to trust God no matter what.

Elijah was convinced that he was just a tool in God's hands.  He was totally yielded, surrendered and emptied.  So often it is all about what we want to do with our lives.  We plan things without thinking too much of whether it is what God wants us to do.  We miss out on God's blessing and working in our lives because we are too busy doing what we want, what brings us happiness for the here and now.

Elijah wanted to know what God's plan was.  God knows the end from the beginning.  Remember when the Children of Israel were in Egypt under Pharaoh - 400 years living there and they were slaves for another nation.  Yet God had a plan in mind, a man in mind in fact to bring about that plan.  Then when they were in the wilderness and God supplied the manna to feed them every day, the people had to listen and obey exactly.  The manna would only fall when they followed the instructions to the letter.  Too often we drift through life not thinking about anything but our own happiness for the here and now - but what about tomorrow?  Will we have a tomorrow?  What then?  To know God's plan is the secret and that can be revealed in various ways - circumstances for instance or when we do things because we feel it is right to do them.  In each of these situations, when we pray and ask God for help the way ahead will be revealed just as it was for Elijah, but only one piece of the puzzle at a time.

Elijah knew what would happen when the prophets of Baal turned up.  It was a test for both he and them.  Elijah knew that God would light his altar but not theirs.  He knew that the people would come to their senses when they saw this real life act of God's power before them.  Do we have the faith of Elijah?  Do we pray specifically or generally?

Elijah waited for the people to arrive but he just didn't sit about.  He prayed and pleaded for the people to see who God was.  As a result of all that preparation in prayer when it came to the crunch God answered Elijah's prayer and the evidence was seen in the fire that consumed the altar.

For Elijah God was a reality in his life - wouldn't it be wonderful to know that same reality today.  To have hope beyond today.  To not just live for the moment and hope things will be OK tomorrow.  Wouldn't it be awful if one person believed in God and the other didn't, for them to both to get to the end of their lives and realise what awaits them - for the one who believed there is hope and heaven for eternity but for the other there is nothing but hell fire and they believed all along that at the end of it all that is life and it is finished.  To realise too late that all their living for the moment in this life was wasted.

Think of the story of Lazarus in the New Testament.  He was poor and lay in the gate of the rich man.  Both died but it was the rich man who regretted his life.  He begged for someone to go back and warn his own brothers not to live the way they were at present because after that they would end up where he was and it was definitely not the place to be.  That rich man remembered his previous life, he knew and experienced the reality of the fires of hell, he knew he had people in his previous life to warn but you know what is the most saddest thing of all - he couldn't do anything about it.  He couldn't go back and tell his brothers, he couldn't even get a glass of water to cool his tongue.  What an awful existence to experience.

Chapter 8 The conflict on the Heights of Carmel

On Mount Carmel Elijah spoke 7 times.  It reminded me of how Jesus on the cross spoke 7 times too.

Firstly he asked "How long halt ye between 2 opinions, if Jehovah be God, follow Him; but if Baal then follow him."  Elijah was showing them that one way must be correct and the other false.  The people "answered him not a word."  I am sure they were stunned and ashamed that such alternatives should be presented to their choice.  So often today too many want to have a foot in each camp, they waver constantly.  They sit in church on a Sunday but when the service is ended so is their faith.  They go back into the world without a care for God.

Second he threw down a challenge - "The God that answereth by fire let him be God."  Baal was the lord of the sun and the god of those productive natural forces of which heat is the element an sign.  Fire was also the emblem of Jehovah and the sign of its acceptance of his people's service.  Just think for a moment of Moses at the burning bush in the desert.  When God had told Moses of the sacrifices to be brought before him in the wilderness all of them had to be burnt by fire on the altar.  Then Elijah told them to offer a bullock, present it and wait for an answer by fire.  All the people answered and said "It is well spoken."

Then we see Elijah being sarcastic towards the prophets of Baal.  They had done everything humanly possible to light their altar but nothing worked.  They then started to dance and cry to Baal for 3 hours.  Elijah was watching all this and told them "cry aloud for he is a god, either he is talking or he is pursuing or he is on a journey or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked."  The response - they cried even louder and then started to cut themselves.  Surely the silence showed them that their religion was a sham.  3 more hours passed and there was still no answer.  There are so many religions in our world today which demand a great deal from their followers.  People do follow and are so blind to the realities of such a religion.

Then Elijah issued an invitation.  The prophets of Baal had tried their best but to no avail.  Now it was Elijah's turn.  The first thing he did was to tell the people to come closer.  Why?  Elijah wanted to be sure that they could see exactly what was going to happen, that there was no trickery involved.  Elijah built the altar using 12 stones, these same stones had been wrecked by Jezebel in her desire to get rid of the worship of God throughout the land.

Elijah gave a command and it was a really strange one.  The people were to help him fill up 4 barrels of water and pour these over the altar.  But not just once, they were to repeat this 3 times.  Everything was soaked - surely it would be impossible to set this on fire now.  The God who we love and serve is the God of the impossible.  Surely we can prove this even today.

Then Elijah prayed and what a prayer it was.  He asked the Lord to hear him and he repeated that twice.  It was quiet and assured, confident of an answer.  He wanted God to be vindicated in showing himself to be God and in turning the people back to himself again.  The response?  The fire fell from heaven and consumed everything - notice we are told exactly what was burnt - the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust and all the water in the trench - nothing was left untouched.

Immediately we notice that all the people fell on their faces and cried "The Lord he is the God, the Lord he is the God."  I am sure the very real experience was something they could not understand and probably they wondered what would happen next.

Immediately Elijah ordered for all the prophets to be captured and killed by the brook Kishon.  All the people were ready to obey.  The saw how hideously they had been deceived and now they close around the vanquished priests who see that resistance is in vain and their hour is come.  If those prophets had been allowed to live the people would have been turned yet again.

Throughout this entire episode the king was standing watching. He was a helpless spectator of their doom and Baal had done nothing to save them.

God was about to perform another miracle in sending rain on the land.  We often read of the miracles of Jesus in the New Testament but there are as many in the Old too.  Some say that the day of miracles is over but is it?  Have we not seen miracles in recent days of people we thought would never come through COVID and yet they have.  Surely we should take time to reflect on God's goodness and mercy in our day and declare as the people did in this chapter "The Lord he is the God."