Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar: Mentoring Up

20 January 2025

No matter what “position” we hold in life, no matter what we are placed in charge of or not placed in charge of, we will always have people in authority over us and people over whom we have authority. This is a simple fact of life that many wish to avoid admitting, but because we live in community with others, it is unavoidable. It is what we do with that authority that matters because even when we are under someone’s authority, we have the authority of God and, thus, the call to appropriately lead others to Him.

Not too long ago, a pastor who had authority over me was moving into a position of even higher authority. Because there were/are some things with which I have a closer more tangible experience and part of his desire in his new position was to open doors for people to grow, before he moved up, he looked at me and said, “I need you to lead up.”

And that is where we most often hear this term, if we hear it at all. Leaders, who are true leaders who wish to empower others in their own growth, want to hear from those they lead so that they themselves can open doors to effective change and become better leaders; they want people to “lead up,” to share what they are seeing, hearing, feeling with their boots on the ground, so that a concerted effort towards improvement can be made.

Unfortunately, there are many people in this world who are not true leaders, not leaders who lead by garnering the respect and support of others. These leaders lead by power, might, and even fear, not by empowering others. They “lead” sheerly out of having been placed in positions that force others to do as they are told; they do not have in mind the well-being of the people “under” them nor the people who will come in the future.

As mentors, we are, simply by being mentors, placed in positions of authority over others. People listen to what we say, thus we need to be extra mindful about getting out of the way and following the leading of the Holy Spirit in order to hold open spaces for people to grow.

We typically think of mentoring in a positionally “top-down” relationship. We either think about someone who is “over” us and mentoring us, or those whom we are called to lead and to guide, who have asked for us to speak into their lives

As mentors, we must learn to recognize the impactful positions that God places us in to affect change. Often, God will call us to impact the lives of those who are in authority over us. Some of those people throw the doors wide open, understanding that God has gifted each person in particular ways and that God can give all those around them words to share with them. Those leaders embrace growth in whatever form God brings it, and will allow us space to speak into their lives as we grow together.

Sadly, however, and even in the Church, there are many in authority who believe they know everything and that we, as those over whom they have authority, have nothing that we can teach them, so our words are cast to the side. Or so we feel, anyway. But, do they need to be?

The story of Daniel gives us some incredible insight into how God can use those in the lowliest positions to lead those in the highest.

Here we can read about how Daniel, alongside three other young men, was cast out of his destroyed home and land and taken into the palace of the very man who overran God’s people. These four men have been set aside as

young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace…to be trained for three years, and after…to enter the king’s service (Daniel 1:4-5, NIV).

Daniel had already been serving a king, and now here he was, ripped out of everything he knew, placed in the service of aonther whose beliefs and ways were nothing like his. To top that off, Nebuchadnezzar had determined that Daniel and his friends were to eat the food of the royal palace, rich food, including meat and wine that was foreign to what their bodies were used to. As is common knowledge, anyone who hasn’t regularly consumed alcohol will immediately be affected by it, and as any vegetarian or vegan will report, when a body is forced to consume animal products after going so long without them, well, it doesn’t bode well and the consumer will likely become sick.

Daniel could have chosen to only eat the vegetables while ignoring the food products he and his friends could not eat. This would probably have caused quite a ruckus with its show of disrespect. After all, the king was only trying to give his best to those whom he wanted trained the best. Rathering simply disregarding the king’s offering, Daniel respectfully asked the official who had been put in charge of them if he and his friends could keep their own diet (Daniel 1:8). Unfortunately, the official, although he showed “favor and compassion to Daniel,” denied Daniel’s request out of his own fear of the king’s authority (Daniel 1:9-10).

At this, Daniel didn’t raise a fuss; he simply waited until the official had left and respectfully asked the guard to test the four young men for 10 days, giving them only vegetables and water, to see how they would fare against those young men were were consuming the rich royal foods (Daniel 1:11-12). Remarkably, the guard agreed and the four young men, when brought into Nebuchadnezzar’s presence, stood head and shoulders above the rest; all four of them received a stamp of approval and were brought into the king’s service (Daniel 1:14-20).

Daniel, through his timely and respectful manner of speaking and acting, not only was able to keep to practicing his beliefs, but he was able to teach the guard, the official, the king, and the three other young men that God knew what He was doing.

As the guard wasn’t approved by the official, nor by the king, to refrain from bringing the royal foods to the four young men, I have often wondered just what it was that he, the guard, did with that food. Certainly the guard would have needed to keep what was going on a secret. Perhaps the guard and his family were able to benefit from this food that would have been thrown away. Perhaps being able to bring this rich food to his family is what compelled him, the guard, to agree to Daniel’s request in the first place. Perhaps the guard wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. Maybe some day we will have the answer to this, but whatever the reason, God used the circumstances to allow Daniel to teach something to those in authority over him as well those whom, as time will demonstrate, he had been placed in a mentoring capacity “over.”

But this wasn’t the end for Daniel.

In Nebuchadnezzar’s second year as king, he had a dream that greatly disturbed him (Daniel 2:1). King Nebuchadnezzar’s answer was to summon anyone and everyone to him who could possibly tell him what his dream meant (Daniel 2:2-3). The crazy part about this, however, is that the king refused to tell those he wanted to interpret his dream what his dream was; instead, they were to tell him and then interpret it, and if they could not do so, then they were conspiring “to tell [the king] misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation [would] change” (Daniel 2:4-9).

As crazy as it is for someone to expect a dream to be interpreted but not be willing to share what that dream was, one can not help but admit that Nebuchadnezzar was right that people would only want to tell him what he wanted to hear. As the king, he was the highest authority in the land and people wanted to please him. By having those who would interpret his dream first tell him the dream, he would be able to determine their level of truthfulness.

When the astrologers told Nebuchadnezzar that this was not humanely possible, the king sentenced all the wise men, including Daniel and his friends who were not even present at this interchange, to death (Daniel 2:10-13).

Interestingly, there was some foreshadowing in what the astrologers had told the king, for the astrologers told Nebuchadnezzar that “no one can reveal [the dream] to the king except the gods” (Daniel 2:13). Of course, those astrologers didn’t have YHWH in mind, but it was exactly YHWH, the only true God, who did indeed reveal the dream as well as its interpretation to Daniel, which resulted not only in the saving of Daniel and his friends’ lives, but in their promotions in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom (Daniel 2:25-49).

When Daniel received the news that he and his friends were to be executed, he could have gotten all defensive, citing reasons like, “We weren’t even there; no one asked us or we could have done it,” but he didn’t. Instead, Daniel respectfully went to see the king and asked to be given a time to go and interpret the dream for him (Daniel 2:16).

And, what was Daniel’s next step before interpreting but after having gained that permission? Well, he asked for his friends to pray for him and for this situation, and he also sought intense counsel from YHWH himself (Daniel 2:17-19). Although scripture does not clearly state that Daniel sought YHWH’s counsel, how could he not have? Just put yourself in Daniel’s place: Would you not have gone into an intense prayer session asking this dream to be revealed to you?

As we know, God did reveal Nebuchadnezzar’s dream as well as its interpretation to Daniel and Daniel did bring this to Nebuchadnezzar which led to Daniel’s high promotion as well as the promotion of Daniel’s friends and the saving of the other wise men (Daniel 2:19-49).

Daniel, standing in the king’s presence, before sharing the king’s dream or its interpretations, gave the one and only true God the glory for having revealed Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to him (Daniel 2:27-28).

Nebuchadnezzar’s response to this revelation was to lie prostrate before Daniel and verbally give glory to Daniel’s God as the “God of gods and the Lord of kings” (Daniel 2:46-47). Even the other wise men had proclaimed that only the gods could answer Nebuchadnezzar, but that no man could have that information. Daniel had proven that his God could indeed communicate with those who would listen.

Daniel had patiently and respectfully mentored Nebuchadnezzar to the point where he was willing to admit that Daniel’s God was powerful, but oh, how quickly we as fallen humans forget! Nebuchadnezzar had another hard lesson coming and God would use Daniel to mentor up to him yet again.

King Nebuchadnezzar was still full of himself and convinced of his godlike powerfulness. He built an idol and commanded that all the people bow down to it. Even the smallest churched children can recite this story: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel’s friends, to whom Daniel had at least twice demonstrated God’s all-powerfulness and loving care, refused to bow down to this idol made by man; their reward was to be cast into a fiery furnace, in which they were protected by the Son of God and out of which they came without even the smell of smoke (Daniel 3). Once again, King Nebudchanezzar spoke out boldly in support of the God of these young men, promoting them to even higher positions and determining that no one shall speak against that God, but, still, the king was not quite there yet in his own belief, as evidenced in Daniel 4 (Daniel 3:28- 30).

Daniel 4 imparts the tale of this same king, Nebuchadnezzar, once again high on himself and on his authority. Nebuchadnezzar has had another dream. Oddly, it is not until after he turned to all his other wise men for failed interpretations that Daniel came into the king’s presence to give an accurate interpretation (Daniel 4:6-8). This time, the dream was not in Nebuchadnezzar’s favor and Daniel, in fear of what he had to share, told the king that he would be brought down lower than he could ever imagine, but that after he, the king, admitted that Daniel’s God is the true God, he would be returned to his former status and position (Daniel 4:19-27).

How do you think a king would receive that news? I know that I would not want to have to share it, but Daniel, through his faithfulness to God and his willingness to be a witness for God, had patiently gained the trust of the powerful man who had bodily life and death authority over him to the point where Nebuchadnezzar trusted Daniel’s God and, as a result Daniel (Daniel 4:9, 19).

Nebuchadnezzar’s vision was fulfilled and, in the end, Nebuchadnezzar bowed down and proclaimed Daniel’s God as his God and the God over all, even admitting to how God had worked to humble him, the king, to bring him to proclaim God as the “Most High…King of Heaven” (Daniel 4:34-37).

King Nebuchadnezzar was used by God to conquer Jerusalem and to destroy Judah; he plundered their treasures and carried off the Jews into Babylon (Daniel 1:1-2), but God saw fit to bring Nebuchadnezzar to a place of repentance and he used Daniel as a key player. I love that! The very man who God used to destroy the kingdom of His people, God blessed with a young man who was capable of mentoring up, but also capable of mentoring “down” to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego so that they fulfilled their callings in God’s Kingdom as well. In the end, Nebuchadnezzar bowed down to the King of kings in great part to Daniel following God’s call on his life to mentor up.

We are often placed in positions that leave us feeling as if have no influence over, sometimes, potentially poor outcomes, but God, in His wisdom, has given us His Spirit. We must learn to lean into the Spirit to gain wisdom and knowledge and timing as we accept our call to help others grow in God, even in the most unlikely of places and positions.