I owe a lot of my understanding of Nehemiah to a sermon series I heard decades ago by Frank Tillapaugh, then pastor of Bear Valley Baptist Church in the Denver area. Frank also wrote an “everyone on the wall” kind of book: The Church Unleashed, now hard to get. Anyway, among other things, Frank pointed out that while ridicule, threats, and discouragement did NOT stop the work in Nehemiah 4, something did stop the work in Nehemiah 5:

Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers…Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.” I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say. So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies? (Nehemiah 5.1, 5 – 9, ESV)

I wrote about this just a couple of months ago in the context of the Southern Baptists, but it’s a message worth repeating. Taking care of the poor and oppressed is NOT a distraction from our mission. It’s part of our mission:

And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” (Zechariah 7.8 – 10, ESV)

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? (James 2.15 – 16, ESV)