"STAND UP & SPEAK UP"

n Alabama judge sentenced a woman to two years in prison because she was too poor to pay her traffic fines. During that two years, the state took her kids away and split them up into foster homes where one of them was abused. Sadly, the Alabama judge stayed on the bench.

Two judges in Pennsylvania sentenced more than 3,500 teenagers to a private detention facility. These judges were convicted in a scheme to fill up these privately own detention centers in exchange for large sums of money.

Uncle Sam gave a federal grant in the amount of $518,000 to study the effects of cocaine on a Japanese quail’s sex life. For years, Northwestern University has received millions of dollars to watch hamster fights. The National Institute of Health spent more than $5 million for beer koozies and other swag advertising to stop smoking including paying “hipsters” $100 to quit.

About a one and half hour drive from South Padre Island down the Mexico coastline is the city of San Fernando, Tamaulipas and the home of Miriam Rodriquez. Mrs. Rodriguez’s 20 year old daughter, Karen, was kidnapped by the Zetas drug cartel just blocks from her home.

Cartel members were so bold that when they called in the ransom demand, Mrs. Rodriguez wanted to meet the Cartel leaders and they agreed meeting Mrs. Rodriguez in a local restaurant.

After draining Mrs. Rodriguez of tens of thousands of dollars, the Cartel stopped calling for money. Mrs. Rodriguez knew her daughter must be dead and after trying to get local authorities to do something but refusing she devised a plan of her own. She began tracking the people responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Karen. She put half of them were in prison, not because the authorities had cracked the case, but because she had pursued them on her own, with a meticulous abandon.

She cut her hair, dyed it and disguised herself as a pollster, a health worker and an election official to get their names and addresses. She invented excuses to meet their families, unsuspecting grandmothers and cousins who gave her details, however small. She wrote everything down and stuffed it into her black computer bag, building her investigation and tracking them down, one by one. She knew their habits, friends, hometowns, childhoods. She knew the florist had sold flowers on the street before joining the Zeta Cartel and getting involved in her daughter’s kidnapping. Now he was on the run and back to what he knew, selling roses to make ends meet.

Without showering, she threw a trench coat over her pajamas, a baseball cap over her fire engine-red hair and a gun in her purse, heading for the border to find the florist. On the bridge, she scoured the vendors for flower carts, but that day he was selling sunglasses instead. When she finally found him, she got too excited, and too close. He recognized her and ran.

He sprinted along the narrow pedestrian pass, hoping to get away. Mrs. Rodríguez, 56 at the time, grabbed him by the shirt and wrestled him to the rails. She jammed her handgun into his back.

“If you move, I’ll shoot you,” she told him, according to family members involved in her scramble to capture the florist that day. She held him there for nearly an hour, awaiting the police to make the arrest. 

In three years, Mrs. Rodríguez captured nearly every living member of the crew totaling a dozen men. But her campaign for justice made her famous, but vulnerable. No one challenged organized crime, never mind put its members in prison. On Mother’s Day, 2017, weeks after she had chased down one of her last targets, she was gunned down in front of her home. After her tragic ending, a letter was found in her black bag of information telling her other children she would probably be killed but “standing up and speaking up” against wrongdoing must never be ignored.

God’s Good Book gives us an example of “standing up and speaking up” which could also be described as the first women's liberation movement when five daughters bucked the system challenging an unfair law and successfully got the law revised. (Numbers 27:1-11). While these women were fighting for equal rights as property heirs, both men and women can learn from this example about speaking up.

A man named Zelophehad died. He left behind five daughters, but no sons. The rules were clear about sons and daughters: Sons could inherit their father’s land; daughters could not. So Zelophehad’s five daughters were screwed.

Keep in mind that this rule was the law of Moses, directly from Moses, the lawgiver himself who was still directly in charge and talking directly to God. So this was a “thus saith the Lord” kind of rule.

But Z’s daughters didn’t let that stop them. The rule wasn’t fair. It would mean they had no inheritance in the Promised Land. It would leave them landless, penniless and helpless. It was wrong. It was unjust.

So the five of them; Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah filed an appeal. They spoke up against something which was unfair, unjust and discriminatory. They told Moses that his rule was unfair and needed to be changed. What that really meant was that they were telling Moses to tell God that God’s rule was unfair and needed to be changed. “Give to us a possession among our father’s brothers,” they told Moses. It was more of a demand than a request.

Moses brought their case before the Lord. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: "The daughters of Zelophehad are right in what they are saying; you shall indeed let them possess an inheritance among their father’s brothers and pass the inheritance of their father on to them". (Numbers 27:7) You shall also say to the Israelites, “If a man dies, and has no son, then you shall pass his inheritance on to his daughter. … It shall be for the Israelites a statute and ordinance, as the Lord commanded Moses.”

Moses and God listened to the women’s argument, conceded that they had a legit gripe and changed the rules. God was a fair and impartial judge who ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, changing the law and creating a new precedent. Thus saith the Lord in favor of Zelophehad's five daughters!

We can learn several things from Zelophehad's daughters but specifically when something is unjust and unfair, God may be calling you to stand up and speak out.

Also, all things don’t come to those who wait, but to those who are willing to go and get them because while man may close the door, God can open it for you. 

Speaking up, especially against unfair or wrongful treatment is the first step to correcting problems and helping those who can't help themselves. Without question, God did not give us the ability to stick our heads in the sand or be afraid to challenge the unfairness in the world but just like Zelophehad's daughters, God gave us the ability to speak up, help others and help ourselves.

Billy Graham used to preach the biggest sin for Christians is tolerance. Tolerance has resulted in spineless Christians turning their heads to those being oppressed, bullied, famished and enslaved. God doesn’t want a bunch of Pollyannas but sinners turned saints to stand up and speak up.

God plainly teaches us there are two roads to two kingdoms and we cannot serve two masters. We are either on God’s team or man’s team. Put another way is our attitude toward God’s Gospel is like going to see the Kansas City Royals playing the St. Louis Cardinals and rooting for both sides. It would be impossible for anyone who has no loyalty to a particular team to really get into the game and be effective.

God wants our loyalty and expects us to stand up and speak up against the scams and shams while helping those who are being mistreated. (Ephesians 5:11, Proverbs 31:8-9)

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us examples like Zelophehad's daughters so we know what You expect of us. Let us be bold in confronting the wrongs of the world and stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. Remind us Moses stood up and spoke up ending the “Israelites” slavery in Egypt. Give us wisdom, strength and fortitude to speak up and help others by whatever task is necessary to stop the neglect and mistreatment we face everyday.