‘And Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “To your seed I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to Yahweh who appeared to him.'
This is the first theophany (awesome experience of God) received by Abram in the land. It confirms that he has now arrived at the place to which God has sent him. This land is the land promised to him, the land that God would show him (Genesis 12:1). This is a postscript to the earlier covenant. This also confirms our above view about the mention of the Canaanite presence. The mention is ominous. It is the Canaanites who will need to be dispossessed by Abram's descendants.
“He built there an altar”. Noah had also built an altar to celebrate the ending of the flood (Genesis 8:20). The altar would be built of earth for the purpose of offering a burnt offering in gratitude to God. We are not to read into it the later complicated sacrificial system. The offering is predominantly an act of worship. But it reminds us that man's approach to God must be through the death of another. As head of the family tribe Abram would be its priest.