And Samuel said to the people, Come and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.
Israel has just beaten the Ammonites, Saul has proved himself in battle, and the camp is full of joy. Samuel does not press the celebration on. He calls the nation to another place, to start the kingdom again.
Saul had already been made king once, yet the word "renew" points to something unfinished. One writer ties it to where the people's loyalty still lay:
Notice that the people spoke to Samuel, not to Saul. No doubt they still recognized Samuel as their lawful judge. And Samuel proposes that they go to Gilgal and "there renew the kingdom." That phrase, "renew the kingdom," suggests, as we have said before, that there had been some hitch, or halt, in setting Saul up in power.
Another writer notes what this same place would later mean for Saul himself:
Jabesh is delivered. Samuel renews the kingdom, already set up back in 1 Samuel 10, but now proven. This renewing must take place at Gilgal (v. 14), the place of circumcision, where the flesh is cut off. … According to Samuel's instruction in 1 Samuel 10:8, Saul's faith would later be put to the test at Gilgal.
Samuel chose the place where Israel first camped after crossing the Jordan, and where the men were circumcised.
Gilgal teaches the great lesson of passing the sentence of death on ourselves, and having no confidence in the flesh. It was the true circumcision, where the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. It was the first camping ground in the land after the people crossed the Jordan. So it brings home the great truth of the Cross, worked out in our daily lives and in what we are. This was the one lesson the nation as a whole needed to learn more deeply than they had yet done. And for Saul, as their leader and representative, it was completely necessary.
The timing is the point:
This reminds us that, whatever the victory, we must judge the flesh as having no part in it, and so never let it exalt itself. How often we need this reminder of the cutting off of the flesh! Saul is officially made king there — a humbling lesson for anyone who receives a place of prominence.
The people wanted to build on the success they had just had. Samuel worked in the opposite direction.
When man thinks of reorganization, or renewal, he means strengthening everything on the base it already rests on. Clearly the people had this in mind as they celebrated their victory over the Ammonites, and in the joy that went with it. Samuel, however, acts in keeping with the place. He seeks to lead the people into deeper self-judgment. He goes back to the roots that had made their present condition possible, and he shows how their desire for a king was tied to their sin and their turning away from God.
Samuel had every reason to feel pushed aside. One writer notices how he took it:
Samuel could watch himself, and the principle of truth he stood for, set aside — and he did it with dignity, grace, and even cheerfulness, because it was the will of the Lord. … There is nothing grudging or forced in what Samuel does. Saul had proved himself worthy of the kingdom by his strength, and Samuel comes forward and proposes that the people take the highest ground — to renew the kingdom at Gilgal.
The day ended in celebration, with one name missing from it.
They were at Gilgal, the place which pictures death to the flesh. Here Saul is made king before the Lord. But while Saul and the people rejoiced, nothing is said of Samuel's joy. Samuel, the man of God, looked deeper. He knew that it was all only skin deep. He knew too that the Lord, whom they had rejected as king over them, could not be pleased with their outward joy.
Yet the chance was genuinely there:
If only Saul and the people had taken in the spiritual meaning of the place, and had walked before God in line with it, their whole later history would have been different.
- Halt. "Renew" implies the kingdom had stalled. Saul was chosen, yet the people still spoke to Samuel and not to him.
- Place. Samuel picks Gilgal, where the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. It is the place of no confidence in the flesh.
- Timing. Samuel calls them there right after a win. That is when the flesh most wants the credit.
- Direction. True renewal digs down. Samuel does not prop up their success; he traces their desire for a king back to its root in sin.
- Response. Saul and Israel rejoiced. Samuel's joy goes unmentioned, because he saw that their joy was only skin deep.
And all the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before Jehovah in Gilgal; and there they sacrificed peace-offerings before Jehovah. And there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced exceedingly.
After the victory over the Ammonites, the whole nation gathers at Gilgal to crown Saul in public. Commentators ask three questions here: why that place, why only peace offerings, and why Samuel's joy is missing.
Gilgal was not just any field. Israel camped there first after crossing into the land, and there the men were circumcised.
Gilgal was the place of the people's first camp when they entered the land under Joshua, and the place they returned to again and again in his day. There the sharp knives of circumcision were used, a picture of death applied in practice to every working of the flesh. So it was fitting that Israel should go there after their great victory over the Ammonites. If Saul and the people had grasped the spiritual meaning of the place, and had walked before God in line with it, their whole later history would have been different.
The place carried a rebuke as well as a memory. Asking for a king had exposed something in the nation's own heart.
And this took place at Gilgal, so rich in associations for Israel. For there, when they first entered the land, all the uncircumcised among them submitted to that rite. It speaks to us of the putting off of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ (Colossians 2:11). It might well have reminded them of their uncircumcised state of heart, which moved them to ask for a king. How suggestive, then, was Samuel's choice of Gilgal, rather than Bethel or Mizpah!
Saul had already been anointed and chosen by lot, but this is the moment his reign becomes public and Samuel's own office as leader comes to an end.
He takes his place publicly as king only in chapter 11:15, which continues — Samuel treating his own office as closed — to the end of chapter 12.
The transfer of power came without bloodshed, but the writers see a shadow over the sceptre from the very first day.
So Saul is, at last, enthroned in authority. The people have placed the sceptre in his hands — and he was to use it so soon and so heavily on them. Now he is king indeed. Samuel hands over to him the government that had rested for so many years on his own willing shoulders.
The verse names one kind of sacrifice only. It belongs to fellowship and thanksgiving, not to atonement.
This is distinct from both the burnt offering and the grain offering, though founded on them. Its object was not to show how a sinner might get peace, nor to make atonement. It was the outcome of having been blessed — the response of the heart to that blessing. It pictured communion, and the offerer and his friends could eat of it together. It was the offering most used by the nation, especially on occasions of joy or thanksgiving, as here.
Others notice what is missing. No burnt offering and no sin offering appear here.
It is rather significant that these are the only offerings mentioned. Nothing at all is said of the burnt offering or the sin offering. The peace offering speaks of fellowship with God and with one another. The burnt offering speaks of how completely acceptable Christ is to God in His death. The sin offering tells how He has borne our sins and put them away. Communion cannot be the first thought.
Saul and all Israel rejoice greatly — and the verse stops there. Commentators read that silence about Samuel as deliberate.
Here Saul is made king before the LORD. But while Saul and the people rejoiced, nothing is said of Samuel's joy. The man of God looked deeper. He knew that all of it was only skin deep. He knew that the LORD, whom they had rejected as king over them, could not be pleased with their outward joy.
The rejoicing was loud. One writer questions how deep it went.
We read that Saul and all Israel rejoiced greatly. Poor man — if only that joy had had a deeper root! It would have borne more abundant and lasting fruit.
The crowning holds a lesson for anyone given a place of prominence. The peace offering ties God, king and people into one — a unity that points past Saul.
Whatever victory is won, the flesh must be judged as having no part in it, and so must not be allowed to exalt itself. Saul is officially made king at Gilgal, a humbling lesson for anyone given a place of prominence. The object of the peace offering here is to express unity between God, the king, and the people, based on the value of the sacrifice of Christ. With Saul this did not last: the full meaning of it can only be found when the Lord Jesus takes His place as King.
- Place. The crowning took place at Gilgal, where Israel was circumcised — the place that speaks of death to the flesh.
- Sacrifice. Peace offerings are the response of a blessed heart, not a means of atonement. They picture fellowship shared with God.
- Silence. The verse names no burnt offering and no sin offering. Communion cannot be the first thought.
- Joy. Saul and Israel rejoice greatly, but the verse says nothing of Samuel's joy. That joy had no deep root, so it bore no lasting fruit.
- King. The unity of God, king and people failed under Saul. It finds its full meaning only when Christ takes the throne.