“A deep and terrifying darkness
descended upon him.” So says Genesis, chapter 15. The man those ominous words
describe — the one who is surrounded, enveloped, by “deep and terrifying
darkness” — is revered as a spiritual guide by perhaps more people on the face
of this earth than any other.
His name is Abram. We know him as
Abraham. He’s the common ancestor of not one, but three great religions of the
world: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. So you may be surprised to hear an
interpretation of the biblical narrative that describes Abram this way — as a
man struggling with depression.
Might depression, in fact, be a
possible way to explain this “deep and terrifying darkness”? It comes upon
Abram suddenly, without warning. It comes upon him at a time in his life when
he has little reason to be depressed, when nearly everything about his life has
been going well.
Man of blessing
“Look toward heaven and count the
stars,” a generous Lord has said to him, not long before. “Count the stars, if
you are able to count them. So shall your descendants be.”
Now, having lots of descendants may
not seem an attractive thought to many of us — most parents today prefer
smaller families. Yet, most of our ancestors valued children as though they
were wealth — which, in a very real sense, they were.
For a man of the ancient Near East —
a nomadic herder of livestock, like Abram — having many children is the be-all
and end-all of life. For Abram, wealth is directly related to biological
reproduction. Every time a ewe drops a new lamb, or a nanny goat a new kid,
Abram’s net worth creeps up a little. Every time a young woman of Clan Abram
bears a new child, that means another set of hands will one day hold a shepherd’s
crook or bake the flat loaves of bread that sustain the community.
The paradox, among all this divine
blessing, is that Abram himself has, as yet, no children. His wife, Sarai,
seems unable to conceive. Using a word that sounds harsh and hurtful today, the
Bible calls her “barren.” This is the greatest sadness in Abram’s life, that as
yet, he has no son and heir.
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