NOTES for Gen 28:1-22
The first meeting of Jacob with God described in Genesis takes place when he is fleeing to Haran, the homeland of Abraham. It was very important: here God renews with Jacob the covenantal alliance first made with Abraham. In antiquity, alliances that had been concluded had to be renewed or confirmed when the situation changed substantially, in particular when one of the parties died. Then the heir of the deceased had to confirm that the agreement made with his father remained in force for him as well. For Jacob, this was his first meeting with the God of Abraham.
Of course, Jacob could not have failed to hear about Him. That is impossible even to imagine. But hearing about Him and meeting Him face to face are not the same thing. The meeting takes place in an old and, at that time, probably abandoned sanctuary at Bethel, founded by Abraham himself. It was unexpected: Jacob did not even understand where he had ended up for the night or what stone he had slept on. This is not surprising. The sanctuaries of nomads were simple and modest, most often only a circle of stones laid out on the ground, with another large, flat stone usually in the center serving as an altar.
Jacob used this altar stone as a pillow. In antiquity people often stayed overnight in a sanctuary in order to learn the will of the deity to whom it was dedicated. Visions, whether in a dream or while awake, revealed to a person during such a night, were considered a revelation of the deity's will or an answer to a question the person had asked.
Jacob also sees such a dream: before his eyes appears a stepped altar like those that then existed in great numbers in the cities of the Near East. At the top, on the altar platform, Jacob sees the God of Abraham standing. The story gives no details of the scene; only the fact itself is mentioned. A stairway leads up there, and angels, God's messengers, move up and down on it. God renews the covenant with Jacob and leads him after Himself, up there, to Himself. The whole path still lies ahead; Jacob is only at the bottom step of the stairway. Yet the covenant with him has been made by God, and that means his path has begun.