01 June 2005 Devotion for Today “Trip to the Barber Shop” Ezekiel 5
As a teenager growing up in the 1970s, trips to the barber were few and far between- not because we didn’t have the money, but because the style dictated it. Its strange, but it appears that teen boys are reverting back to what I remember and I think to myself, “did I really look that scruffy?” But getting a hair cut-or a new hair style- can be a traumatic experience. You want somebody you can trust holding on to the electric clippers. And you never quite know if you have communicated the hair style you want or if the barber actually understands what you want until the job is done. But if the job is not done right-oh well, tough luck, too late. Better luck next time! Its difficult to undo what is already done in a situation like that. I can recall one incident with a hair stylist that my mother went to. Mom thought her stylist could do a better job than the barber she normally took me to, and while I was there I got talked into getting a perm- which wasn’t unusual for boys to get perms back then although they never talked about it. My hair was unruly, very fine and difficult to deal with. A perm would give it more body and I could more easily keep it in place. It turned into this burnt-blonde, afro-looking creation on the top of my head. I was humiliated. I tried my best to hide it. I wore a ski cap on my head to school until the teacher told me to take it off. I winced after hearing guffaws of laughter from behind me and kids asking me if I was entering a Michael Jackson look-a-like contest or something. It was not a pretty sight.
The opening verses of Ezekiel 5 tell how the prophet takes a trip to the barbershop on himself. Imagine getting your hair cut with a sword? “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind I will draw out a sword after them. You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. Then take some of them again and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of
This sounds very strange to the civilized reader of the 21st century. Ezekiel’s actions almost appears to be shaman-like rather than befitting a prophet of God. Ezekiel’s prophetic style was unusual because he lived in unusual times. God also had an unusual judgment which He was to perform against the people whom He loved: “And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations.” Verse 9. These prophecies, as strange as they were, were designed to get the people’s attention.
Have you ever asked yourself what God may have to resort to grab your attention. You do not have to make it that difficult. Go to Him now and yield to Him in obedience before you start seeing weird things going on around you. Have a blessed day!
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