This week saw a very significant event take place in Israel. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, visited Israel for three days. Prime minister Netanyahu brought his entire cabinet, heads of all the military and police, and religious leaders to meet Prime Minister Modi at the airport.

The reason this visit is significant is found both in Bible history and prophecy.

Tarshish in Bible Prophecy & History

As has been discussed many times in the Bible in the News, the nation of Tarshish has a significant role to play in the time of the end:

“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?” (Ezekiel 38:13)

Who the nation of Tarshish is has been explored many times. Undoubtedly, Britain fulfills the role of Tarshish, while her former colonies, many of which now form the Commonwealth, are the young lions.

The link between Tarshish and Israel goes back thousands of years. King Solomon cooperated with Hiram King of Tyre to obtain materials for the building of the temple and the enriching of his kingdom through the services of the ships of Tarshish:

“And all the drinking vessels of king Solomon were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold: none were of silver; it was not any thing accounted of in the days of Solomon. For the king’s ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks. And king Solomon passed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.” (2 Chronicles 9:20–22)

Tarshish has been identified both historically and archeologically with Britain based on the ancient trade in tin, lead and silver as catalogued in Ezekiel 27.

“Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.” (Ezekiel 27:12)

“They use brass money, and iron rings of a certain weight. The provinces remote from the sea produce tin, and those upon the coast iron…” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book 5, Chapter 12).This is testified to by Julius Caesar who in his book on the Gallic Wars related of Britain:

Samuel Bochart in 1651 testified the very name of Britain is derived from this:

“Britain is the name given to this island by the Phoenicians, when they trafficked hither for tin, calling it Baratanac; the land of tin, contracted afterwards to Bratanac, and then again softened into Britania”(Samuel Bochart, Phaleg, 1651).

This is the Tarshish that was to the West of Israel, operating in the Mediterranean and beyond. This is the direction Jonah fled aboard a ship of Tarshish trying to escape his commission to preach to Nineveh.

However, Solomon was engaged with ships of Tarshish that went to the east as well:

  “And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.” (1 Kings 9:26–28)

Years later, Jehoshaphat attempted a similar feat, which was ill-fated due to the alliance Jehoshaphat formed with Israel’s wicked king Ahaziah:

“And after this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly: And he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish: and they made the ships in Ezion-geber. Then Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the LORD hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish.” (2 Chronicles 20:35–37)

So there was a Tarshish to the West, but also a Tarshish to the East, where ships went operating out of Ezion Geber or Elat. John Thomas in his book Elpis Israel relates:

“As to Tarshish, there were two countries of that name in the geography of the ancients. Jehoshaphat built ships at Ezion-geber, a port of the Red Sea, that they might sail thence to Tarshish. Now, it will be seen by the map that they could only sail southward towards the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, from which they might then steer east, or north, for India. As they did not sail by compass in those days, but coastwise, they would creep round the coast of Arabia, and so make for Hindostan.

They might have sailed southward again along the coast of Africa instead of to India; but it is not likely they did, as the commerce of the time was with the civilized world, and not the savage. The voyage occupied them three years. In the days of Solomon the trade was shared between Israel and the Tyrians; for “he had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram; once in three years came the navy of Tarshish bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.” These products point to India as the Eastern Tarshish—a country which has always conferred maritime ascendancy on the power which has possessed its trade and been its carrier to the nations.” (John Thomas, Elpis Israel, p395)

India’s Connection to Israel

India is also identified with the young lions. It was conquered by the British, who allied themselves with the Hindus against the ruling Muslims who were the descendants of the Muslim Tamerlane or Timur (incidentally, whose grandson built the Taj Mahal). Eventually the Muslims centralized themselves in the are now known as Pakistan while the Hindus were largely in the south in what is now called India.

India depicted as a young lion with Britain

India, as a British colony, formed part of the contingent of “young

lions” who were heavily involved in the prophecy of Revelation:

“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” (Revelation 16:12)

It appears in the WWI poster that depicts the mother lion of Britain calling upon her young lion colonies to help with her defence.  India is identified as one of these.

Indian soldiers were involved in pushing the Ottoman Turks out of the Middle East, and therefore “drying up the river Euphrates” during World War 1. This was highlighted by the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Haifa memorial. The Battle of Haifa took place September 23, 1918, where the Indian 15th Calvary Brigade, attacked the forces of the Ottoman Empire resulting in the capture of Haifa and Acre. The Indian forces had were heavily engaged in battle at Megiddo and moved on to capture Haifa with heavy losses. Memorials are found in Haifa, New Delhi and Bangalore as a testimony to the sacrifice of the brave Indian soldiers.

India’s independence was announced around the same time as Israel in July 1947, just months before the vote in the United Nations for the creation of the State of Israel.

Just like Israel would later be partitioned, the India colony was partitioned between the Muslim state of Pakistan in the North, and the State of India in the south.  India became independent August 15, 1947. Israel became an independent state May 14, 1948.

Modi’s Visit to Israel

Prime minister Modi’s visit to Israel is very significant as it demonstrates the picture painted years ago by the prophets is coming into being. The young lions and Tarshish (east and west) would be involved in trade with Israel in the latter days and therefore would protest the invasion of the king of the north, or Gog:

“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?” (Ezekiel 38:13)

This weeks visit saw the

strengthening of ties both economic and military as was evidenced in both speeches given by both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Prime Minister Modi upon Modi’s arrival to a warm Israel welcome:

My friend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, welcome to Israel. Prime minister, we’ve been waiting for you a long time. We’ve been waiting almost 70 years in fact. Because yours is truly a historic visit. It is the first time an Indian Prime Minister is visiting Israel. We receive you with open arms. We love India!...

I am confident of the real mathematics of life. I am confident in the success of our partnership for many reasons:

First, is the talent of our peoples. It has been said, that in Silicon Valley in California, the two most common languages overheard are Hindi and Hebrew, occasionally one hears some native English too.

Second, I believe in the success of our partnership, because of the great sympathy between our peoples, the natural comradery between Indians and Israelis. The Jews of India, and the 100,000 Israeli’s of Indian decent are a wonderful human bridge between our two nations, our two peoples….

Prime minister Narendra Modi reciprocated:

Excelle

 Prime Minister of Israel, ladies and gentlemen… shalom.. It is my singular honour to be the first ever Prime Minister of India to undertake this ground breaking visit to Israel. I want to thank my friend, Prime Minister Netanyahu for the invitation, and for receiving me with so much warmth. My visit celebrates the strength of centuries old links between our societies….

Later during a joint press conference Prime Minister Modi made clear the link between the two countries:

Friends, the link between our people goes back to thousands of years when the first Jews landed on India’s south-western coastline. Since then, the Jews have flourished, and their traditions and practices thrived in India…

Friends, in modern times, our ties have seen rapid growth since the establishment of our full diplomatic relations a quarter century ago. Common objectives of economic prosperity, strong technology and innovation ties and the need to secure our societies define the space for convergent action between us. Over coming decades, we want to frame a relationship that transforms the landscape of our economic engagement. India is the world’s fastest growing large economy.

The common theme is clear. What ties the countries together is a large population of Jews of Indian descent, over 100,000, along with a similar vision of economic development, trade and prosperity. This is very fitting when India answer to the role of a young lion and one of the MERCHANTs of Tarshish – the eastern one. The word “merchant” used by Ezekiel is interesting. It is the Hebrew word cachar meaning “trader, to go about and travel in trade.” That is exactly what Modi is doing in Israel, strengthening trade ties to bring prosperity that will build the create the great spoil so tempting to Russia in the latter days:

“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?” (Ezekiel 38:13)

A need for security from Muslim extremism.

A similar need for security against Muslim extremism has been highlighted. Later in a news conference with an Indian television station the defence issue was highlighted by Prime Minister Netanyahu. 

We share vital intelligence. Israel is a power house against terrorism. India is fighting terrorism in your part of the world, we all remember the horrible attack in Mumbai. In fact Prime Minister Modi and I just met with little Moshi, the Israeli boy who was saved by his Indian nanny who was there with us as well. We know that we face this threat to our common civilization. We have been cooperating, and have decided to cooperate more intensively to battle this scourge that threatens the lives of  Indians and Israelis and so many others around the world. I think that this visit marks a turning point in that common struggle.

The interviewer put an interesting question to Prime Minister Netanyahu:

Arnab: Palestine continues to harbour Hamas, and Pakistan continues to habour the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hesbul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed: Israel hits the Hamas ba ck, do you believe Mr. Prime Minister, that India as a victim of terrorism is well within its rights to hit back at these groups directly.

Netanyahu: I think that every country, there are two requirements: one is to protect your people, the second there is a requirement is not to allow your territory to be used as a base of attacks against another country. I think this frames the reference point for the self defence that every country is entitled to exercise.

So India, rather than criticizing Israel with its treatment of the Palestinians, is looking to it as an example in how it deals with the Palestinians and the Hamas terrorists embedded amongst them.

Referring to the murder of the parents of young Moshi, and the fact their murderers have not been brought to justice the TV interviewer asked:

Arnab: What do you have to say, Prime Minister Netanyahu, the fact that nine years after the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the orchestrators of the Mumbai attacks, Hafiz Saeed and Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi have not been brought to book by Pakistan? How do we deal with a country like this  now that we are working together?

Netanyahu: Any country that harbours that harbours prospective murderers and actual murderers, and terrorists are just that, they are murderers, should bring them to justice. This is an expectation and a demand that that we voice continually, as I do so now as well. I have to tell you that we face today, between India and Israel, our two democracies, the two bookends of this vast region, we face today a rash of radical Islamic terrorism that comes from various sources, and various directions: from the Sunni variety for example headed by Daish, by ISIS; the radical Shiites headed by Iran, with Hezbollah and other sources.  They threaten first Muslims. They kill Muslims a lot, but they also, of course, threaten non-Muslims whom they view as infidels to be subjugated or eradicated. So, a very large number of countries, India and Israel to be sure, but many others including, I have to say, Arab countries in the Middle East understand that we are in a common battle against terrorists who would not merely eradicate our freedoms, but actually slaughter us, unless we defend ourselves. That is producing interesting new relationships and alliances. What is obvious to me, is that India and Israel are such natural allies, being first and foremost democracies, that we should ask ourselves, how come we didn’t cooperate, not only in the battle against terrorism, and against radicalism, but also in the quest to better the lives of our future, of our peoples?...

The effect radical terrorism is having is to draw India and Israel together – but as the Prime Minister related, also the Arab countries of the Middle East are waking up to the fact that they must ally themselves with Israel against a common enemy of radical Islam that threatens all their societies.  Sheba and Dedan must confederate with the young lions and the Merchants of Tarshish.

In fact, India Today reported Netanyahu as stating:

The two nations have agreed to cooperate against terrorism which is faced by both of them.

"This is a marriage made in heaven but we are implementing it here on earth," Netanyahu said.

This more true than Netanyahu understands. The prophets have written the script for the play that the Prime Ministers are currently performing in.

The Eastern Tarshish, the Young Lion of India is taking its place on the final world stage in preparation for the Lord’s return.

Cattle and Goods

Now On a final note. At the end of the interview, Netanyahu made some statements regarding innovation in agriculture, some of which were comical – yet significant:

Netanyahu: Yesterday Prime Minister Modi and I visited a farm, a greenhouse actually, and we saw how our satellite technology, and our drone technology allows us to target individual plants. So you don’t have to take the water, if it is a scarce resource, you don’t have to spread it evenly on big fields, you can actually direct the irrigation to where you actually need the water. This is a tremendous increase in productivity. 

I showed Prime Minister Modi today a graph of the most productive cows in the world. You think, who produces the most milk per cow in the word?  You think it is a Dutch cow or a French cow? No!  It is an Israeli cow. It is a computerized cow, every moo is computerized. So we produce about twice the milk per cow compared to an average European cow. Why shouldn’t Indian farms enjoy this?  Why should they not have the benefit of more productive techniques? And Prime Minister Modi says they should… and that is the partnership we are doing.

Interviewer: On a lighter note we know that you are great at technologies, but I found the description of a computerized cow fascinating….

Netanyahu: Every moo is recorded!

Interviewer: The computerized cow! I would like to visit Israel and see the computerized cow some day!

While it made the interviewer chuckle, that every moo is recorded by these computerized cows, it drives home the statement that the Israelis of the latter days have “gotten cattle and goods”.  Not only have the gotten cattle and goods… they are also the best in the world at producing milk with them. This is the prosperity that is growing due to the blessings from God.

We are living on the edge of Ezekiel 38.

So let us look to our neighbours and see how we can help each other prepare to meet our Lord who is at the door.

This has been Jonathan Bowen joining you for the Bible in the News.