According to some Rishonim it was not the akeidah which was the final, greatest test of Avraham Avinu; it was the challenge of buying Me'aras haMachpeila. Had you asked me, I would have said that after the akeidah, buying Me'aras haMachpeila almost seems like an afterthought. That gufa may be the hesber of why it was the most challenging test. Imagine a person who is rushed to the hospital with life threatening pain in his chest. After a few hours in the emergency room, the doctor comes in and says, "I have some good new and some bad news. The good news is that your heart is OK, no problem found. The bad news is there is a hangnail that we need to take care of before you are discharged to go home." The person would probably be thinking, "What are you bothering me with nonsense for?" Here too, after the akeidah, Avraham might have just wanted to push aside the bother of the whole back and forth with Efron and not deal with it. Had Avraham been a lesser person, he would have no doubt lost patience. He could have argued to Hashem, "I've already proven myself -- what do you want with me already? Why bother me with these little things now?" But Avraham didn't do that. He accepted the small challenges in stride, as trivial and as nonsensical as they might have seemed in light of what he had just been through.
The gemara (BM 87) contrasts the behavior of Avraham in welcoming guests with the behavior of Efron:
כתיב ואקחה פת לחם וכתיב ואל הבקר רץ אברהם אמר רבי אלעזר מכאן שצדיקים אומרים מעט ועושים הרבה רשעים אומרים הרבה ואפילו מעט אינם עושים מנלן מעפרון מעיקרא כתיב ארץ ארבע מאות שקל כסף ולבסוף כתיב וישמע אברהם אל עפרון וישקל אברהם לעפרון את הכסף אשר דבר באזני בני חת ארבע מאות שקל כסף עובר לסוחר דלא שקל מיניה אלא קנטרי דאיכא דוכתא דקרי ליה לתיקלא קנטירא
Avraham offered only a simple meal of bread, but overdelivered and brought out a whole fleishig seudah. Efron originally offered to give Avraham the Me'aras haMachpeilah for free, but in the end he charged full price paid only in top currency.
Chazal in Pirkei Avos (1:16) teach us this same lesson: אמור מעט ועשׂה הרבּה.
What is this idea of speaking less and doing more? If the idea is that a person should not promise too much lest he break his word, then we already have halachos that tell us that a person should keep his word. There is the idea of הין צדק; there is the idea of מי שׁפּרע that once you give your word to an agreement you should keep it even if the transaction is technically not yet binding.
Furthermore, it would seem that Avraham's behavior is a poor proof to this idea. Perhaps Avraham offered only a small meal because he was afraid that if he offered too much, the guests would shy away so as to not bother him. Maharasha comments on that gemara that this is exactly what was going through Avraham's mind: והטעם מפני שלפעמים ימנע האורח מלהכנס והמקבל מלקבל כדי שלא ירבה לטרוח את המקבל והנותן. It's not a general סיג to prevent a person from failing to keep his word, but a limited din by hachnasas orchim. So how do we get from here to a general principle?
In the Shiurei Daas R' Bloch (this shiur was written over by by wife's grandfather R" Dov Yehuda Schochet) sees the idea here as not just about keeping or failing to keep one's word, but the relationship between speech and action is a siman as to a person's attitude. The tzadik is all too aware of both the difficulties and obstacles that the yetzer and life can throw in his way and of the limits of his own abilities. Therefore, he is wont to promise too much. Once the tzadik gets going, however, he manages to find within the strength to overachieve. The rasha, in contrast, consistently underestimates the difficulties that stand in his way and he overestimates his own ability. He therefore feels free to promise the world, thinking it will be easy to deliver, only to have his efforts end in failure and frustration.
The gemara in Sukkah (52a) describes the reaction of the tzadikim and reshaim to the future destruction of the yetzer ha'ra:
כִּדְדָרֵשׁ רַבִּי יְהוּדָה לֶעָתִיד לָבֹא מְבִיאוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְיֵצֶר הָרָע וְשׁוֹחֲטוֹ בִּפְנֵי הַצַּדִּיקִים וּבִפְנֵי הָרְשָׁעִים צַדִּיקִים נִדְמֶה לָהֶם כְּהַר גָּבוֹהַּ וּרְשָׁעִים נִדְמֶה לָהֶם כְּחוּט הַשַּׂעֲרָה הַלָּלוּ בּוֹכִין וְהַלָּלוּ בּוֹכִין צַדִּיקִים בּוֹכִין וְאוֹמְרִים הֵיאַךְ יָכוֹלְנוּ לִכְבּוֹשׁ הַר גָּבוֹהַּ כָּזֶה וּרְשָׁעִים בּוֹכִין וְאוֹמְרִים הֵיאַךְ לֹא יָכוֹלְנוּ לִכְבּוֹשׁ אֶת חוּט הַשַּׂעֲרָה הַזֶּה
R' Bloch writes that this gemara parallels our sugya of אמור מעט ועשׂה הרבּה. The tzadikim see the yetzer as Mt Everest. Who can say if anyone will make it to the top? Their caution serves them well. Reshaim, however, see the yetzer as just a thread, a minor obstacle. They are therefore unprepared for the challenges that befall them and fail to deliver the goods.
While R' Bloch sees אמור מעט ועשׂה הרבּה as a siman of a person's character, R' Yehuda Deri explains that it is a sibah, that talk itself can be the cause of failure.
R' Deri points out that Efron's intentions from the get-go may indeed have been to give Me'aras haMachpeilah as a free gift to Avraham. Notice the repetition 3x of variations of נָתַתִּי in Efron's declaration:
לֹא אֲדֹנִי שְׁמָעֵנִי הַשָּׂדֶה נָתַתִּי לָךְ וְהַמְּעָרָה אֲשֶׁר בּוֹ לְךָ נְתַתִּיהָ לְעֵינֵי בְנֵי עַמִּי נְתַתִּיהָ לָּךְ קְבֹר מֵתֶךָ.
And Efron deliberately says this in public, to ensure that if he retracts, he will suffer embarrassment. He put himself in a situation where the pressure was on to keep to his word.
How then does a person go from promising so much to delivering so little?
R' Deri explains that היא הנותנת! Precisely because Efron talked a big talk, his words led to his downfall.
There is another gemara in Sukkah on that same daf (52a) quoted by R' Bloch:
כל הגדול מחברו יצרו גדול הימנו
The greater the person, the greater the yetzer ha'ra that fights against them.
We are introduced to Efron with the words וְעֶפְרוֹן יֹשֵׁב בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי חֵת (23:10). Rashi comments: אותו היום מינוהו שוטר עליהם. מפני חשיבותו של אברהם Efron became a big man in town overnight. He made big promises. He became through his position and his talk a גדול מחברו.
A big man who makes big promises makes a big target for the yetzer ha'ra.
Chazal advise אמור מעט ועשׂה הרבּה not just as a סיג lest you fail to deliver. Chazal are teaching is that אמור מעט because otherwise you WILL fail to deliver. Too much talk invites the yetzer/tempts fate, which leads inevitably to failure.
The advice of אמור מעט ועשׂה הרבּה is preceded in Avos with the command of עשׂה תורתך קבע. What is the connection between these two ideas? The Sefer Chareidim writes that a person needs to set a fixed portion to learn each day, e.g. daf yomi, mishna yomi, etc. There has to be a seder kavu'a. However, says the Sefer Chareidim, best to keep that commitment in the back of your mind, or in your heart, and not verbalize it. אמור מעט ועשׂה הרבּה Once you verbalize the commitment, you are making yourself into a target for the yetzer ha'ra and you won't then be able to succeed. You don't need to pit a "Do the Daf" bumper sticker on your car or baseball hat. You don't need to advertise that you are גדול מחברו because you have a seder kavu'a. Don't become a target for the yetzer. Don't talk about it -- just do it (see R' Chaim Elazari's Nesiv Chaim who says a slightly different pshat in this Sefer Chareidim, but I think it fits R' Deri's approach.)
Our mission is to be like Avraham Avinu, to under promise and overdeliver. R' Shmuel Birnbaum notes that every morning we say in Baruch she'Amar נְגַדֶּלְךָ וּנְשַׁבֵּחֲךָ וּנְפָאֶרְךָ וְנַזְכִּיר שִׁמְךָ נַמְלִיכְךָ. That's the minimum bar that we set for ourselves -- that the "emor me'at" part! We are supposed to do even more. Ha'levay that we should at least strive to do so.
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