After the time of Abimelek, a man of Issachar named Tola, son of Puah and son of Dodo, rose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim. He led Israel twenty-three years; then he died, and was buried in Shamir. – Judges 10:1-2

Today's Scripture Reading (May 4, 2025): Judges 10

I recently asked Google who the most forgotten President of the United States might be. Not the ones we want to forget but the ones that have been ignored. Depending on which side of the political fence you live on, either of the last two Presidents are the ones you would like to forget: neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden get as much love as their followers think they deserve. But the ones that we really forget are neither good nor bad, and they are not the ones who lived in times of prosperity or struggle; they tend to be our guides through the mediocre times of life, and maybe it is for that they should be remembered.

So, who is the forgotten President? According to Google, Benjamin Harrison is the winner of the race not to be remembered. Harrison served as the 23rd President of the United States from 1889-1893. Not even being the grandson of the 9th President, William Henry Harrison, could help us remember poor Benjamin. Neither could the admission of six new states during his time in office: Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, North, and South Dakota. He was a mediocre President whose economic policies were the most significant contributory factor in the financial panic of 1893. But nothing much else happened during his single term as President. And so, we have forgotten this middle-of-the-road President. 

Of all the Judges, Tola might be the most forgettable. We know so little about his reign. The Book of Judges is relatively silent about Tola, and the Judge is not mentioned in the rest of the Bible. We know that he saved Israel, but we aren't told who or what he saved Israel from. Tola is the only Judge who is mentioned without naming an antagonist against whom he stands. We are told that Tola reigned for twenty-three years, but not what he did during that time for Israel. He is of the tribe of Issachar but lived in the hill country of Ephraim and it was there that Tola was buried.  

If only for the fact that he led Israel for twenty-three years, Tola must have been a significant leader. Maybe we can assume that Tola addressed an external threat, but it seems possible that Tola was raised to lead Israel, not against an external enemy, but that he saved the nation from their worst enemy: themselves. And in this, maybe Tola was another model of Jesus, who didn't come to deliver us from an external enemy but rather from our sin and all of the internal enemies we bring into the fight.

Whatever the truth might have been, Tola was the man that Israel needed following the reign of the false king Abimelek. Maybe that is all we need to know. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 1