Genesis 12:7, 8 And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land; and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east; and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.
Once Abram was in the land, the Lord appeared to him at Shechem, and He repeated His promise of seed and land. As of yet Abram had neither a son nor did he own any land, but he believed God’s Promise without seeing it. He responded to God’s appearance and promise by building an altar in faith for worship and thanksgiving.
Then Abram moved to Bethel and ”pitched his tent” there as a visible statement of faith. He was a sojourner (a person living in a foreign land not his own), for verse 6 says, ”The Canaanite was then in the land.” In faith he was staking a claim to the promise of God. He expressed his faith by building another altar and calling upon the name of the Lord.
And so for us. We don’t ”see” the promise of land (heaven, eternal life, the kingdom), but we believe, worship, and thank God for it. We are sojourners, not residents, in the world, where the Canaanite (unbeliever) lives, but we set aside holy places and times (build an altar) to worship in spirit and in truth. We respond like Abraham in Hebrews 11:9-10: ”By faith Abraham went (we go) to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents (our human bodies)….For he was ( we are) looking forward to the city that has foundations.” So we build an altar where we are sojourning and call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.