Another item concerning the priests who came near to the Lord is their hair. "Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads" (Ezek. 44:20). According to this verse, the priests should neither shave their head, cutting off all their hair, nor should they let their hair grow long. Rather they should poll their hair, which means to cut it short. According to 1 Corinthians 11:5, to cut off or to shave off all the hair signifies rebellion against the Lord's headship. When we serve the Lord, we should not be rebellious against His authority. We all must learn to submit ourselves to the Lord's headship. Thus, we need some amount of hair upon our head, signifying our submission to His headship. On the other hand the same chapter tells us that to have long hair indicates self-glory and self-dignity (1 Cor. 11:15). We may even use another term—self-enjoyment. There is some subtlety of the enemy within the long hair styles of today. Do not think that this is simply a hippy-type hair cut. Satan, in his subtlety, is behind all these things. According to the Bible, long hair signifies beauty and glory. If a man keeps his hair long, it means that he is keeping his self-glory and self-dignity; he is fulfilling his self-pleasure and self-enjoyment. He simply enjoys his long hair.
Let us apply these two points. Suppose a brother says that he is not under anyone, that he is independent, and that he is equal to every other member in the Body. Perhaps he even quotes Matthew 23:8 where the Lord Jesus said that we are all brethren. For him to have such an attitude means that, spiritually speaking, he shaves off every bit of his hair and does not submit himself to the headship of the Lord. Yes, Matthew does say that we are all brethren, but 1 Peter 5:5 says that the younger should submit to the elder and that we all should submit to one another. To shave or to cut off all the hair signifies there is no submission in the local churches. We need the proper submission.
On the other hand to have long hair, signifying self-glory, is to desire and seek for leadership in the church life. These are the two problems in the church life. One is a shortage of submission, and the other is a kind of hunger and seeking for position and leadership. This is a seeking for self-dignity and self-glory. Some are seeking to be an elder or to be a leader. You have to realize that such seeking is not a glory; it is a shame. To seek after leadership, to hunt any kind of self-glory is a shame. This will kill us spiritually, and this will disqualify us from serving the Lord properly. If we want to be qualified to serve the Lord, we should not shave our head, meaning that we should have a proper submission. Likewise, we should not let our hair grow long, meaning that we should not seek after self-glory, self-dignity, position, and leadership. To have long hair signifies seeking and hunting for a position. Both the lack of submission and the seeking after a position damage the church life. Whoever is seeking leadership in the church life is fully disqualified and finished with the church life. Satan is so subtle! Spiritually speaking, we need to keep a moderate cut of hair: on the one hand we are under the proper authority submitting ourselves to the headship of Christ, and on the other hand we do not seek to be a leader. We simply minister life to others and support the church life by His grace. We do everything we can for the church, and yet we do not seek a position of leadership. Such an attitude is really marvelous! It is a shame for us to seek to be an elder or a leader in the church. This kind of seeking will cause us to lose our qualification to serve the Lord. We have to poll our hair, that is, to have a moderate cut.
The priests who were qualified to minister to the Lord directly in His presence should not drink wine (44:21). Wine signifies worldly, physical pleasure, and joy. We should have nothing to do with worldly pleasure lest we lose our qualification to serve the Lord.
Furthermore, all these priests have only God Himself as their inheritance, their possession (44:28). We should not be content to have merely some physical, material possessions. In our concepts, our heart, our mind, our realization, and even in our practical living, we must consider that our God whom we serve is our only possession. He is our real possession, and He is our real inheritance.