This came as a surprise to me.  I was doing some research on Saddam Hussein this past week and stumbled across a little-reported fact.  The Second Signpost may yet prove it is to happen on or around the end of this current Shemitah year.  As we know from Cahn’s book The Harbinger, the 9-11 attack and the financial crisis both happened on the last day of the Shemitah in 2001 and 2008, respectively.  My own experience also became tied to this current Shemitah.

What is the Shemitah?  It is the seventh year and last year of a Biblical seven-year cycle found in Leviticus.  Though Biblically it is tied only to the land of Israel, this concept of a seven-year cycle is showing up in many places and ways.  The Signposts, the Tribulation and even the return of Christ may all be tied to the Shemitah.  I don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

But I didn’t think Saddam Hussein, the fulfillment of the first horseman and leader of Iraq, had anything to do with the Shemitah.

It is well known that Saddam Hussein came to power on July 16, 1979.  July 16 is also the anniversary date for the start of Islam.  And though that is 1,357 years by our counting (from AD 622), by the Muslim calendar it is almost exactly 1,400 years.  July 16, 1979, though, is not the end of a Shemitah year.

Saddam then spent fourteen months consolidating power, executing suspected traitors, and preparing the military for war with Iran.  He was bent on conquest from the start.  It is well known that Saddam Hussein ordered the massive invasion of Iran’s Khuzestan province which started on September 22, 1980.  This was the start of the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War.  September 22, 1980 is not the end of a Shemitah year either.

Saddam Hussein giving a speech in 1980.

What is less well known, and where books on the subject must be delved into, are the actions that took place leading up to the war, including the very first conquest ever undertaken by Iraq under the leadership of Saddam Hussein.  No, the invasion of September 22, 1980 was not Saddam’s very first conquest.

As part of the tension leading up to the war, Saddam accused Iran of holding territory that belonged to Iraq or Arab nations in general.  The territories included half the width of the Shatt al-Arab waterway which was Iraq’s only link to the Persian Gulf, some towns along the thousand-mile border with Iran further north, and some islands in the Strait of Hormuz that Saddam contended belonged to the UAE.  (Yes, the UAE.  Saddam viewed himself as the leader of the pan-Arab nation and defender of all Arabs.) Territory-wise, it was all small stuff.

Both Iran and Iraq would sporadically send artillery fire across the border at each other through the summer of 1980.  But it was finally on September 9, 1980 that Iraqi ground forces commanded by Saddam Hussein actually crossed the border into Iran and captured two towns: Qasr-e-Shirin, and Naft-e Shah.  Qasr-e-Shirin can be found on the map due east of Tikrit, just east of the Iranian border.  Naft-e Shah is about 37 miles further south along the border.  It was then on the next day, September 10, 1980 that Saddam Hussein declared that disputed territories had been liberated.

Twelve days later on September 22, 1980 Saddam finally ordered his army to cross into Iran’s oil-rich province of Khuzestan and the Iran-Iraq War officially began.

So what is significant about this little invasion and conquest of two towns on the other side of the Iranian border?  First, it was Saddam’s first conquest.  The rider who rode out as a conqueror and was bent on conquest, conquered.  But secondly and more importantly, September 10, 1980 is the end of a Shemitah year.  September 10, 1980 was also Elul 29th, the last day of that Shemitah year.  If this date is meant to be significant, then prophecy sees Saddam Hussein riding out, not in July 1979 when he took power, but on September 10, 1980 when he began his conquests.

So it would also seem that Saddam Hussein heralded the start of the First Signpost, a full five Shemitah cycles ahead of the Second Signpost (if it starts this September).  And though I don’t think the remaining Signposts will take nearly as long, we have had 35 years to “get it,” to understand that the Signposts have started, the events of the end times.

It is also looking like there is a divine rhythm in timing to these end time events.

Bibliography:

The Iran-Iraq War, by Efraim Karsh, Osprey Publishing, 2002;

The Lessons of Modern War – Volume II – The Iran-Iraq War, by Cordesman, Anthony H. and Wagner, Abraham, Westview Books, 1990. (Available online here in pdf’s by chapter)

Categories: Signpost #1: Iraq, Signpost Theology

Tags: First Signpost, Iran-Iraq War, Iraq, Saddam Hussein, Shemitah