Update on Iraq and dinar revaluation

Last January I posted a dinar update, saying that if the revaluation did not occur in January or February, we may have to wait until April when we could watch the wave-sheaf offering of barley. Now that we have passed that date (April 8), it is time to give another update.

There has been much change in the wind in Iraq this past week. It appears that the never-ending political crisis is now heading for a change in leadership.

Prime Minister Maliki is trying to replace the head of the Central Bank, Mr. Shabibi, claiming that Shabibi's position is subject to his own office. Actually, Maliki is salivating at the mouth at the $60+ billion in dollar reserves. His lust for money was already revealed some time ago when he stole $640 million and put it in his Swiss bank account, claiming with many winks and nods that it was just leftover money from campaign funds.

However, Maliki's love of money could very well be his undoing. If it causes him to try to take over the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), he will find himself at odds with the banking fraternity itself. We all know how powerful this Babylonian system is, and I think it is likely that Maliki will lose the backing of some very powerful people who have been propping him up till now.

Secondly, Maliki's refusal to give up the power of the three remaining ministry positions is finally catching up to him. He has been the acting head of these three since he took power, and I don't think he has any intention of giving up those positions. He has too much to gain by not doing so. This infuriates his main rival party, headed by Allawi, but so far Allawi has been unable to defeat Maliki, who has been backed by Kurdistan up to now.

This is, in fact, what is shifting today. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) president is Mr. Barzani, who was invited by President Obama to come to Washington for a whole week of talks last week. Maliki tried to get Obama to refuse to see him, but Obama told him that he had been personally invited by the White House. Furthermore, Obama even gave him the treatment normally reserved for national presidents. This sent a very important diplomatic message not only to Maliki but to the whole world that Mr. Barzani had the backing from the White House.

Conversely, it also warned that Maliki was losing his White House support.

This has huge political implications, of course. To lose the support of the USA as well as the banking fraternity of Central Banks is probably going to be a fatal blow to Maliki's power grab. It is only amazing that the White House has backed Maliki this long, given the fact that he could hardly have come to power without the backing of al-Sadr, the Iranian agent in Iraq. Maliki's bid for power brought in strange bedfellows, having the backing of both Iran and USA. But with the conflict over Iran's nuclear program, along with the attempt to overthrow Iran's main regional ally, Syria, it is perhaps inevitable that Maliki would lose USA support in the end.

Barzani left the White House and immediately went to Europe to appeal to those leaders. There is no doubt that he is drumming up international support for regime change in Iraq. One of the Iraqi MP's essentially said so as well.

http://theiraqidinar.com/2012/04/11/barzanis-visit-to-washington-to-result-in-changing-political-scene-says-mp/

To me, this is a serious indicator that Maliki could soon fall from power. If my view is correct that Maliki represents Belshazzar in Daniel 5, then we ought to see the diversion of the river (current, or currency) just before his fall. That was the order of events in the historic fall of Babylon. In other words, the closer we come to Maliki's fall from power, the closer we are to the revaluation of the Iraqi currency.

For nearly two years I have believed that we would see this revaluation occur on a date associated with barley, because it is linked to the 9th miracle-sign of Elisha (2 Kings 4:42-44). This past Sunday, April 8, was the time of the wave-sheaf offering of barley, so it could be that decisions were made on that day to facilitate this.

An alternative view would be that it might happen around May 6, since that is the first Sunday after the Second Passover (as per Numbers 9). I am unaware of any other "barley" dates between now and then. It would seem logical that this current power struggle could take a few weeks to fully manifest in the political scene. If so, this could come to a climax in early May.

The MP in the article above indicates that when Barzani arrives home in Kurdistan, then the final war will begin to remove Maliki from power. I do not know precisely when Barzani will be back in Kurdistan, but it is something that we ought to watch carefully. And because the revaluation ought to occur just prior to his overthrow, we really could see the currency RV any time between now and then from that standpoint.

Up to now, I have focused more upon a single day of "barley," when in fact, it could be a season of "barley harvest" as well. Barley harvest goes from the wave-sheaf offering to Pentecost, or "wheat harvest," which is seven weeks later. Recall that Ruth gleaned in the field of Boaz "until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest" (Ruth 2:23). We know that barley harvest took many weeks to accomplish.

2 Kings 4:42, however, speaks of the 9th sign of Elisha as occurring precisely on the day of the wave-sheaf offering: "Now a man came from Baalshalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack." This is what the prophet used to multiply the bread, even as Jesus also multiplied the barley bread in John 6 at the time of Passover and wave-sheaf offering.

The revaluation of the dinar, I believe, represents the multiplication of the barley bread. I don't know for sure if this must occur on a wave-sheaf offering, but we could extend this to the season of barley harvest. May I remind you, too, that the dinar was mentioned in John 6:7 just before Jesus multiplied the barley. Philip took one look at the multitude, and said, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little."

That word denarii is the old word from which dinar and (Spanish) dinero are derived today. To me, it is a not-so-hidden link between the modern dinar and the multiplication of the barley in John 6 and in 2 Kings 4.