One of the arguments that people make about baptism is that it’s an “outward sign of an inward grace.” In other words, you do it so that people around you can see the dedication that you have towards God.
This may surprise you, but I have several problems with that line of reasoning, most specifically being that God nowhere describes baptism in those terms. It’s always “for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38) or “to rise and walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). It’s not a sign of something else—it’s what we’re commanded to do to become a Christian (1 Peter 3:21).
External signs for internal changes is a thinking that is primarily rooted in the Old Testament. The covenant of circumcision is one example (don’t ask me how they checked). Priestly clothing was another.
And so was the hair on a Nazarite. Samson is arguably the most famous long-haired figure in the Bible—since it was the sign of his strength—but the reason he had long hair was because he was a “Nazarite from his mother’s womb” (1Judges 13:5).
Samuel seems to have been the same way. When Hannah begged God for a son, she said that, if she could conceive, “no razor would come upon his head” (1 Samuel 1:11). Based on that, you can assume that Samuel was also part of a Nazarite vow and had really long hair by the time he died as an old man.
So what is this fixation by God on hair as a sign of extreme dedication to God? In a culture where hair was already an important part of who they were—remember, Joseph shaved his before meeting Pharaoh (Genesis 41:14)—extreme long hair was immediately recognizable. And, for the most part, revered.
Maybe it’s best to look at this question from the opposite direction. In Ezra 9:3, the high priest tore his hair out in grief at the outright sin of the people. In Ezekiel 5, the prophet cuts his hair in stages in order to show the levels of God’s judgment.
If shorn hair symbolizes some kind of grief or humiliation in the face of God, it’s possible that longer hair reveals a steadfast devotion instead. If there’s hair, there hasn’t been any recent grief.
As a side note, do you think it’s possible that reverence and respect is what Absalom was trying to manufacture through his hair? The Bible goes to great lengths to describe Absalom’s luscious locks. According to 2 Samuel 14:26, he only cut it once a year, and when he did, it weighed close to five pounds.
As a man rapidly approaching 40, I’d be happy with one pound of hair growth in a year. But I digress.
For the Nazarites, many of whom were otherwise nondescript parts of society, hair growth seemed to be a way to show their desire to serve God on a more intimate level. Who knows, maybe their example would encourage others to do the same.
