Genesis 12:6
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
Abram had left his kindred at God's call to sojourn in a strange land, and his passing through unto Sichem records his entrance into Canaan, the land promised to him as an everlasting possession. His first encampment in that promised land was at Shechem, called Sichem, at the plain of Moreh, in the valley beneath its oaks between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. That country was fertile and well watered, but the Canaanites then occupied it with idolatrous worship including human sacrifice. Though he had reached the promised country, settling among alien inhabitants and false worship brought him distressful forebodings.
He owned none of that promised land during his lifetime except a burial place that he bought from the Canaanites. Shechem thus became sacred ground from the history of the fathers, where Jacob also afterward pitched his tent and dwelt more than a hundred years later. Wherever Abram pitched his tent his first work was to build an altar so he could worship God together with those traveling with him as pilgrims and strangers. At Shechem he raised his first altar to Jehovah in the land.
Respect for God's holiness means putting God first by providing a place to meet and worship Him before everything else. Such faith shown by works advances His work and testifies to its character.