Jacob Sees the Lord

Today I read Genesis 28 where Jacob is sent to live with his uncle, Laban, to take a wife from someone other than a Canaanite. Jacob obeys his parents and sets off immediately, or so the scriptures make it seem, for Laban's household. Esau upon seeing that Jacob obeys his parents wishes tries to get back within his parents good graces and takes to wife the daughter of Ishmael, his uncle on his father's side. We are not told if this meets with his parents approval or not, but I imagine it did not.

While Jacob is journeying to his uncle's house he has a vision and sees the Lord. Now, at this point we don't know a whole lot about Jacob other than he obeys his mother, but he definitely must have been doing something right for God to appear to him like this. We know that God doesn't appear to just anybody. God renews the Abrahamic covenant with his grandson, Jacob, in this vision and Jacob builds an altar to worship the Lord. He also makes a promise to the Lord that he will pay tithing when he returns from his uncle's house.

These types of stories makes me wish we had more information about the people we are reading about and their early life. What did Jacob do to make himself worthy of having God appear to him? Was there anything in particular that he was doing to cause such a blessing to be bestowed upon his head? For some reason it seems a common occurrence to not talk about the childhood of people. Even the most important person in world history, Jesus Christ, His childhood was skipped over completely except for one event that happened when He was 12 and the rest of it was summed up in a single verse! Makes you wonder if they were trying to conserve space or if that is the culture. I suspect the latter personally. But it sure would be nice to know things about the people we are reading about before they are adults and receiving the blessings of a good childhood. But that is probably the story/history buff in me talking. I know that someday I will find out, I just have to be patient. Until tomorrow.