Genesis 15:17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram…

The following is a transcript from a teaching entitled “Narrative Preaching” by Dr. R.C. Sproul at the 2004 Ligonier Pastors’ Conference:

I’ve always said, if I was in jail, solitary confinement, and could only have one book, the book I would want would be the Bible. If I could have only one book of the Bible with me in prison, the book I would choose is Hebrews. People are usually surprised to hear me say that. They assume I am going to say ‘Romans,’ but I say ‘I already got that. I don’t need to have a copy of it.’ But there’s so much in Hebrews that develops both the Old and the New Testament and brings it together that that’s what I would like to have in my cell.

But if I could only have one verse, I would have the verse – the smoking torch and burning furnace moving through the pieces. Why? Because in this drama, the ultimate theophany of God as He manifests Himself is fire, the pillar of smoke, the burning bush, the consuming flame, this is God moving through the pieces… this is God entering into a covenant with His creature, and as the author of Hebrews said, ‘Because God could swear by nothing higher, He swore by Himself’ because graphically, dramatically, symbolically, what God is doing for Abraham when Abraham says ‘how can I know for sure You’re going to do it?’ God runs the gauntlet. God goes between these pieces and He’s saying to Abraham, ‘Abraham, if I ever break My word to you, may I be torn asunder, just as you have torn asunder the parts of these animals. May the immortal become mortal, the immutable have a mutation, may the eternal stop living! Abraham, I can’t swear on my mother’s grave, I can’t swear by the stars or the moons.. these are all part of the created order. The highest promise I can give to you is ‘I swear by Myself, by My own deity, by My very Being… that before I would lie to you, I would give up My own Divine essence.’

You wonder why I would have that (verse)… is that relevant today? Does that have 21st century application? It does to me. Because every time I worry and I am doubting and struggling because people break promises, I break promises, and I live in a world filled with covenant breakers… that I am brought back to the God who swore by Himself, who has never broken His word.