Why does God let the wicked win? In Habakkuk 1:12 through 2:20, the prophet asks how a holy God could use a nation even more wicked than his own to carry out judgment. Dr. Toby Holt walks through God's answer — and the famous verse that helped spark the Reformation. Habakkuk accepts that his people need correction but is stunned that God would use the cruel Babylonians. God's reply: wait and trust. The proud will fall, the vision will surely come, and "the just shall live by his faith." A hard season will end, has a purpose, and God is with you in it. This very verse broke through to Martin Luther.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why was Habakkuk troubled by God's answer? Because God planned to discipline Judah using the Babylonians, who were even more wicked. He could not see how a holy God could use such a tool.

2. What was God's answer? To wait in faith. The proud and violent would fall in time, but the righteous would live by trusting God, not by understanding everything.

3. Why is "the just shall live by faith" so important? It is quoted throughout the New Testament and was central to the Reformation. We are made right with God by faith, not by works.

"Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith." — Habakkuk 2:4 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.