Attention was not devoted to the rebuilding alone. One of the prime areas of failing had been the neglect of the poor, something the Law required, and failure to do so was drawn attention to by the prophets. Poverty was a major problem. Symptoms of the problem were a lack of food and having to subject their children to slavery. Moreover, there were structural problems that hindered them from overcoming the problems (v5). It was also the case that the powerful were making things worse (v7).
In the church we have a habit of talking a lot of nonsense about poverty and prosperity. The Bible is concerned with prosperity, but the major outworking of this in a truly Biblical sense is in bringing an end to poverty. This will require structural changes in society, and the rich (and we need to recognise that in global terms "the rich" includes most of us who live in the West, it is not just the bankers!).
So Nehemiah instituted change, and the religious leaders were involved in this too. He also took action in his own life, not taking advantage of the special privileges of the governor.
Now, just in case you are thinking I am a socialist, I am not. There are other passages in the Bible we count against the naive socialist solutions that some Christians put across. But neither am I part of the "religious right" (and I don't like tea!). We need to read the whole Bible and take all of it on board.
Nehemiah ends the section by calling on God to remember him with favour for what he has done. Now for some of us this offends our religious mores. It should not. Jesus often spoke about rewards.
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