An entire chapter is devoted to Abraham’s purchasing a plot of land in which to bury Sarah. Why? The answer is here:

Sarah lived 127 years…and Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” (Genesis 23.1 – 4, ESV)

God had promised Abraham the land, but at this point, he is a “sojourner and foreigner.” The rest of the chapter goes into intricate detail about the bargaining process including the Hittites’ apparent desire to just give him the land. But Abraham insists on buying it:

Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, commercial standard. So Ephron’s field, which was in Machpelah, which faced Mamre, the field and cave which was in it, and all the trees which were in the field, that were within all the confines of its border, were deeded over to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city. (Genesis 23.16 – 18, NASB)

Why is this event important enough to merit a whole chapter? Because now Abraham is a landowner – not just a sojourner and a foreigner. It was an initial baby step of faith: one day we will own all this land, but today we own a corner of a field.

He is the LORD our God; His judgments are in all the earth. He has remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham,…saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan As the portion of your inheritance,” When they were only a few men in number, Very few, and strangers in it. (Psalm 105.7 – 12, NASB)

By faith [Abraham] went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. (Hebrews 11.9, ESV)