There is a thread in Scripture that is very easy to miss. Three different times, a Gentile ruler examines a servant of God and comes to the same conclusion: no fault found. The wording is almost identical each time. And the pattern builds toward one final courtroom scene that changed the world forever.
The first time it happens is in 1 Samuel 29. David is in a mess of his own making. He left the land of Israel back in chapter 27 because he stopped trusting God to protect him from Saul. He ran to the Philistines and ended up serving under Achish, the king of Gath. He lied about who he was raiding. He pretended to be loyal to Israel’s enemy. And now, in chapter 29, the bill comes due.
The Philistines are marching to war against Israel, and David is in the rear guard with Achish. He’s about to fight against his own people. If he fights, he’s a traitor to Israel. If he refuses, he’s a traitor to Achish. He’s trapped, and he put himself there.
But the Philistine princes don’t trust him. They say in verse 4, “Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us.”
And when Achish has to break the news to David, look at what he says.
- 1 Samuel 29:3 , “I have found no fault in him since he fell unto me unto this day.”
- 1 Samuel 29:6 , “Thou hast been upright, and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the host is good in my sight: for I have not found evil in thee, since the day of thy coming unto me unto this day.”
- 1 Samuel 29:9 , “I know that thou art good in my sight, as an angel of God.”
Three times we see this Gentile king examining God’s anointed, and finding no fault.
Darius and Daniel
The second time it happens is in Daniel 6. Daniel is serving under King Darius in the Medo-Persian empire. He’s been preferred above all the other presidents and princes because “an excellent spirit was in him” (Daniel 6:3). And the king was thinking about setting him over the whole realm.
That made the other rulers jealous and they went looking for dirt.
Daniel 6:4 , “Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.”
They searched his record, examined his conduct and they couldn’t find a single thing. So they could only think of one thing to do. Daniel 6:5 , “We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.”
The only charge they could bring against Daniel was that he obeyed God. So they tricked Darius into signing a decree that made prayer to anyone but the king punishable by death. Daniel kept praying anyway, three times a day, with his windows open toward Jerusalem. And they caught him.
When they brought it to Darius, the Bible says he “was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him” (Daniel 6:14). He worked all day trying to find a way out. But the law of the Medes and Persians couldn’t be changed.
So Daniel was cast into the den of lions. And when he came out alive the next morning, he said to the king:
Daniel 6:22, “My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.”
No fault, no occasion, and no errors. Innocency was all that was found. A Gentile ruler who knew the man was blameless but couldn’t stop what was coming.
Pilate and Jesus
The third time it happens is in the Gospels. Jesus is standing before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. The chief priests and rulers of Israel have dragged Him there, accusing Him of perverting the nation.
Pilate examines Him. Notice what he says.
- Luke 23:4 , “I find no fault in this man.”
- John 18:38 , “I find in him no fault at all.”
- John 19:4 , “That ye may know that I find no fault in him.”
- John 19:6 , “I find no fault in him.”
- Luke 23:14 , “I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him.”
Five times in the Bible Pilate is very clear. He examined Jesus and found nothing. The Gentile ruler looked at the Son of God and gave the same verdict that Achish gave David and that the court gave Daniel: no fault found.
How the Punishment Escalates
Each time a Gentile ruler finds no fault, the cost to God’s servant goes up.
With David, the verdict meant freedom. Achish sent him home. David walked away from the Philistine army, went back to Ziklag, and lived. No suffering or punishment. The “no fault” verdict ended in deliverance.
With Daniel, the verdict meant a death sentence that didn’t stick. Darius knew Daniel was innocent, said so, but couldn’t stop the decree. Daniel was thrown into a pit of lions with a stone sealed over the mouth of the den (Daniel 6:17). But God shut the lions’ mouths. Daniel went into the pit and came back out alive the next morning. The verdict was no fault, the punishment was death, but death couldn’t hold him.
With Jesus, the verdict meant death that was carried out in full. Pilate said “no fault” more times than Achish and Darius combined. But the crowd screamed louder. Jesus was beaten, mocked, crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross, and buried in a tomb with a stone rolled over the entrance (Matthew 27:60). He didn’t survive the pit. He actually died. But three days later He walked out of that grave, because death still couldn’t hold Him. Acts 2:24 says, “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”
David walked away free. Daniel survived the sentence. Jesus fulfilled it and conquered it.
Each time, the Gentile ruler said the same thing. But each time, the price got higher. And each time, God’s power to deliver got bigger.
How the Gentile Ruler’s Role Escalates
It’s also worth noticing what happens to the ruler in each case. Achish wanted to keep David. He fought for him in front of the other Philistine lords. But he was outvoted four to one and had to submit (1 Samuel 29:9). He let David go because he had no choice. It bothered him, but it didn’t cost him anything.
Darius tried harder. He didn’t just speak up for Daniel. He “laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him” (Daniel 6:14). He spent the whole day trying to find a legal way to save an innocent man. And when he couldn’t, and Daniel was thrown in, the king went back to his palace, refused food, couldn’t sleep, and went to the den first thing in the morning hoping Daniel was alive (Daniel 6:18-19). It wrecked him. He felt the weight of condemning a man he knew was blameless.
Pilate went even further. He tried to release Jesus. He sent Him to Herod hoping someone else would deal with it (Luke 23:7). He offered the crowd a choice between Jesus and Barabbas, thinking they would choose Jesus (Matthew 27:17). He washed his hands in front of them and said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it” (Matthew 27:24). His own wife sent him a message saying, “Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him” (Matthew 27:19). Everything around Pilate was screaming that this man was innocent. But he handed Him over anyway.
Each ruler knew the truth. Each one tried, to some degree, to change the outcome. And each one failed, because God had already determined what would happen.
The Bible was building toward one courtroom scene the whole time. A sinless man standing before the world, and the world admitting He’d done nothing wrong, and condemning Him anyway.
Achish’s verdict over David was the first draft. Darius’s verdict over Daniel was the second. And Pilate’s verdict over Jesus was the final fulfillment.
The “no fault” language is threaded through the Old Testament so that when you finally get to the trial of Christ, you realize heaven had been rehearsing this moment for centuries.
Isaiah 53:9 said it long before Pilate ever opened his mouth: “He had done no violence, neither was any deceit found in his mouth.”
No fault was ever found because there was no fault to find. And the only man in history who could truly say that is the one they nailed to a cross anyway.
