This week we have the AUKUS alliance back in the news, with the largest military exercises between the UK, Australia and the U.S. taking place.

In a press release by the UK Ministry of Defence, Ben Wallace (the UK’s defence secretary) announced that since July 22^nd the AUKUS nations have been conducting a military exercise testing their joint capabilities across land, sea, air and also digital domains. More than 34,000 troops were involved in the exercises that saw UK Royal Marines Commando Force embarked on HMAS Adelaide, which is Australia’s largest warship. The exercise involved ship to shore landings among other military readiness assessments.

This all comes from the recent AUKUS agreement which was a security pact between the UK, Australia and the United States which was first announced on the 15^th of September 2021. At the time it severely upset relations with the French, as it involved Australia cancellation a large submarine order from France, and ordering Nuclear submarines from the United States instead. At the time some Australian politicians were concerned that such a snub to such a leading European Union member could have serious negative implications to their relationship with the EU, and therefore would mean that the decision would leave no way back from AUKUS for Australia should they change their mind in the future. Former Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbot said the agreement was “the biggest decision that any Australian Government had made in decades” because “it indicates that we are going to stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States and the United Kingdom in meeting the great strategic challenge of our time”.

The agreement at the time cause some debate in Canada, with opposition leaders questioning the government why they had not too joined the agreement. Leader of the Opposition Erin O’Toole committed to trying to join the alliance if he were to be elected at the next Canadian Election. New Zealand, which has a strong principle against nuclear submarines, also had some debate about the issue, with some pushing to joining AUKUS but standing back from submarine operations.

To the Bible believer all of this is of great interest. Britain, described in the Bible as Tarshish, is described as having “young lion” nations surrounding her in Ezekiel 38:13

“Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?”

This word for “young lion” is in some places also translated as “villages” – in Nehemiah 6:2 Nehemiah is asked to meet with Sanballat “the villages in the plain of Ono”, and it has the idea of the villages around a city. And so I believe the symbology here is that of a nation with it’s surrounding child nations, young lions.

And so we see that at the time of Christ’s return, this nation Tarshish (Britain) is standing united with the young lion nations, the offspring nations. Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States are all such nations, that have their roots in British-led settlements in those areas during the period of colonisation. And so seeing these three nations, Britain, Australia and the United States come together, particularly in a military alliance, is of great interest. In Ezekiel it is in the context of them opposing the invasion of the northern confederacy, and so this political and military alliance really shows progress towards this situation described in Ezekiel 38, which contains prophecy of the events that will come to pass just prior to Christ’s return.

And so as we see the world, seemingly in chaos, we also see the hand of the almighty guiding the events according to his plan, which we know ends with the Kingdom of God being established. We see that the most high rules in the Kingdom’s of men, and so we can with confidence know that he will bring to pass that which he has decreed.

Join us again next week for another edition of Bible in the News.