Lee and the book of Job

[awareness]

Originally Posted by zeek

Here's what the book says:
Satan says to God "stretch out your hand... and he will curse your face. The Lord answers, " Very well... he is in your hands."
How can we explain this close association between the Lord and Satan? Satan says if you stretch out your hand, and God answers "very well" as if agreeing to strike Job, but then says "he is in your hands". It's as if God's hands are synonymous with Satan's.
As awareness has pointed out, how could the omnisicent Lord not already know what was in Job's heart? At the very least, we must admit that God allows evil. But if we are not to lapse into Gnostic dualism, how can we not but admit that God, the ultimate source of everything must also be the ultimate source of evil?

God says in Isaiah 45:7 "I create evil."