There they trembled, and that in Gilgal of all places (1 Sam. 13:77And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. (1 Samuel 13:7)). How utterly insensible were Saul and the people to the meaning of that spot. It was there the sharp knives of circumcision were used when the people first entered Canaan—the place where, at least in figure, flesh met its unsparing judgment. Brethren, we have nothing to fear when flesh is duly mortified with us. God's presence is known in power where evil is thus disallowed, and those of the contrary part are made to feel that the power is really there. Gilgal is a sure starting-point for victory.
Now came the test for the unhappy king. Samuel had promised to come within seven days. As the seventh day wore away and the prophet did not arrive, Saul's patience utterly gave way. Our flesh is always restless, unbelieving and turbulent. Saul recalled how Samuel offered a burnt offering on an earlier occasion in Gilgal (1 Sam 10:8); he would now do the same. But Saul was not Melchizedek. What place had the burnt offering in his mind that he should act thus? It could only have been a talisman, as the ark was to the people in the day of Hophni and Phinehas (1 Sam 4:6). Brethren, it is GOD that counts, and if the outward and visible things of His own ordinances are allowed to displace Him in our minds, they become positively mischievous in our hands.