The Significance of the Cutting of Hair in Ezekiel’s Prophecy
We know Apostle Paul’s teaching about hair for the Corinthians church. In 1Corinthians 11:14, Paul teaches, “Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him” (NAS).
Time has changed; the opinion of hair changes over time. One unique phenomenon at the current time is that there is no uniform opinion about hair. Quite a few men embrace the ideas that long hair is a show of beauty. They have long hair, and some even braces it with fancy hair locks or adornments for beautification. On the opposite end of the spectrum, some men want the head bald, which has a look of determination. Rather long hair or no hair, most men definitely care about their hair.
The Proverbs in the Bible said, ‘The glory of young men is their strength, and the honor of old men is their gray hair” (Proverbs 20:29). Jewish tradition has long treated hair as a symbol of glory. Hence, it was a sign of ultimate disrespect and a cause of war when a foreign king shaved off the hair of an emissary.
The significance of hair went beyond respect. It is a sign of protection from God. Solomon said this about his brother—Adonijah, “If he will be a worthy man, not one of his hairs will fall to the ground; but if wickedness is found in him, he will die” (1Kings 1:52). At the time, Adonijah was holding onto the horn of the altar, seeking the protection from God. BTW, the name Adonijah means “my Lord is Yahweh.” Ironically, Adonijah did not escape death because he seek to marry the Shunammite—the love of Solomon and the symbol of secession to the throne.
Since hair was a symbol of God’s protection, having no hair could become a subject of scorn. Elisha was subjected to scorn by some youths when he was in Bethel. The word Bethel means “the house of God,” it was the religious center of Israel at the time. Elisha understood the weightiness of the scorn. He just inherited the mantle of Elijah. His validity as the leading spokesman of God was challenged because of his lack of hair. Hence, he called on God to uphold his position as the prophet of God and cursed the youth. As a result, forty-two of the youths died for jeering the baldness of Elisha. Hair was no laughing matter. (2Kings, 2:23-24)
These backgrounds are critical in our understanding of the demonstration of cutting the hair of Ezekiel. Removing the hair, albeit that it was on one’s own initiation, would be a great cause of concern. God had Ezekiel to do so for two reasons:
1. It was commensurate to the prophecy. God was about to forsake the kingdom of Judah. To say the least, that was a shocking and drastic action. Hence, God wanted an equally emphatic prophetic demonstration to draw the attention of people.
2. It was symbolic in two ways. It was first to signify that God would remove His protection from the Jews. God would no longer shield the Jews from attackers, the idol worshipping nations. The other reason was that removing the hair represented the shame. The Jews had sinned and was proud of their ways. What God was about to do would bring shame to them. Removing the hair was an appropriate symbolic demonstration of the shame to come.
Jeremiah was a contemporary of Ezekiel, it was important know what God told him to do with his hair. In Jeremiah 7:29, we found that God told Jeremiah to cut off his hair to show lament over God’s rejection and forsakenness of the generation. Although the reason of cutting of the hair was for mourning, the same action was iterated.
Perilous time calls for drastic action.