Isaiah 58:1-5

International Children’s Bible

How to Honor God

58 The Lord says, “Shout out loud. Don’t hold back.
    Shout out loud like a trumpet.
Tell the people about the things they have done against God.
    Tell the family of Jacob about their sins.
²Then they will come every day looking for me.
    And they will want to learn my ways.
They will become a nation that does what is right.
    They will obey the commands of their God.
They will ask me to judge them fairly.
    They will want God to be near them.
³They say, ‘To honor you we had special days when we gave up eating.
    But you didn’t see.
We humbled ourselves to honor you.
    But you didn’t notice.’”

But the Lord says, “You do what pleases yourselves on these special days.
    And you are unfair to your workers.
⁴On these special days when you do not eat, you argue and fight.
    You hit each other with your fists.
You cannot do these things as you do now
    and believe I will listen to your prayers.
⁵This kind of special day is not what I want.
    This is not the way I want people to be sorry for what they have done.
I don’t want people just to bow their heads like a plant.
    I don’t want them to wear rough cloth and lie in ashes to show their sadness.
This is what you do on your special days when you do not eat.
    But do you think this is what the Lord wants?