advice please...

[b]

one of the girls from the cell group i run has recently become a Christian, which is amazing - Praise God.
she came up to me last meeting and asked me about a piece of scripture. obviously there is a confidentiality agreement we have in the cell so i don't really wanna say too much personal stuff about this girl, other than she said she felt called to read this passage - Job 16 v 1 - 2 "Then Job answered, The comfort you give is only torment".
i'm not overly familiar with the book of Job and have not read it in depth. i do know the general path it follows, but i'm not really sure what to tell her. Job is talking to Eliphaz in this bit.
well, it would be a great help if you could answer with what you think. i will be seeing her in a few hours time, so the sooner the better really, but our next cell is next week.
thankyou all,
God Bless,
b
xx

[Ann]

Hello b
How wonderful that your friend has accepted Jesus. Hallaujah!

I'm not sure exactly what you need to know about this scripture so this will be pretty general. If you need more please post again or email me.

Job is going through absolute misery and his "friends" are sure it is because he has done some evil. The book of Job confronts the problem of why bad things happen to good people. God himself said Job was perfect and upright Job 1:8 & 2:3 yet his "freinds" who said they came to comfort him kept trying to find the sin or failure in his life that caused the bad things to happen. God's word makes clear that God was allowing these things to happen in this case to prove to principalities and powers that Job served God from love and obedience and not from hope of gain or in response to God bribing him with good things. This is in Job chapters 1 and 2. As Christians our lives are also intended to be a witness to His goodness and to our love for Him. Eph 3:10 "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God."

In some Christian circles today people who are having problems or who are sick or struggling are told it is because they are doing something wrong or because they are not walking in faith or are not in right relationship with God. That does not agree with God's word. The early church suffered persecution not because they failed God but because they choose not to fail Him. The church grew by leaps and bounds at least partly because their faithfulness in walking with Jesus despite hardships was such a testimony of the reality of Christ. I can go on and on on that one but I'm not sure that's what you need.

In the verses you mentioned Job responds to his "friends" and tells Eliphaz he is useless as a comforter and is in fact part of the torment. At the end of the book God told Job to pray for his friends. When Job was obedient even to doing that he was healed and was blessed with twice as much as he had before the testing. The New Testament scriptures that show us how to respond to "friends like this are Luke 6:28 "Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you." and Matthew 5:44 "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;" You may remember a month or so ago that Lance and Pam had an opportunity lead the ilj family in putting these scriptures into practice and God responded in love and power to their obedience.