Genesis 42 and 43



Sunset from the Cruise ship -- Taken by Steve

I was reading Chapters 42 and 43 of Genesis.  This is the story of the famine in Egypt.  Jacob sends 10 of his sons to buy grain, and they encounter Joseph, not knowing it is Joseph.  Joseph keeps Simeon and tells the other brothers to go home and return with Benjamin.
When they tell Jacob what has happened, he says:

‘I am the one you have bereaved of children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin. All this has happened to me!’  Genesis 42:36

;It strikes me that Josesph was sold into slavery and exiled from his home, Simeon has been separated from his family and imprisoned, and Benjamin has to leave home and possibly end up in prison as well, and yet Jacob considers that it has all been done to him.

Do we do that? Do we organize the universe so that it spins around us personally? 

What about when we claim that something terrible has happened -- orchestrated by God --  in order for us to learn a lesson.  Doesn't that seem to be a rather ego-centric opinion?