Shalom - The Story of the End of Suffering
PSALM 55:1-7
1 ¶ To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David. Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.
2 Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;
3 Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.
4 My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.
5 Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. (This is prophetic of the condition of the world that we find ourselves in right now – a world of turmoil and troubles that are causing people to become overwhelmed with destress. What David was experiencing in his own life’s circumstances has now become a global condition of the suffering of humanity that is in the world today. We know that God allows prophets to suffer in ways that are prophetic for future events)
6 And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.
7 Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.
After reading this portion of scripture – Brother Branham comments that: ON.THE.WINGS.OF.A.SNOW.WHITE.DOVE_ SHP.LA V-7 N-5 SUNDAY_ 65-1128E
33 David, a lover of the wilderness, when he got distressed and the people wouldn't believe him, and the enemies had come upon him, he said, "If I had the wings of a dove, I would fly out into the wilderness and there remain." How many times have I thought that same thing!
To be carried away on the wings of a dove into (as it were) a different world of where he would forever be at peace and rest, and there to remain in that place forever, and less than a month after this, he had journeyed into that new world by the leadership of that dove.
REVELATION 21:4
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: (Death, sorrow, crying, and pain are things that are associated with the six thousand years of the condition of man’s suffering in a fallen world – but throughout eternity, these things will not be known of anymore) for the former things are passed away. There is to be a complete end to all human suffering.
Shalom - The Story of the End of Suffering
Shalom in English means “Peace” – and it’s often used as a greeting word, similar to "hello" or "goodbye" but more than that, it’s like – “Peace be unto you” and “Good health” and also wholeness, safety, completeness - Shalom.
**We all know how the story of sin and sorry and suffering began, of how it entered into the world of mankind by the way of unbelief of the word of God that took place in Eden, but there is also the story of how sin and suffering is to end – and so what does that story look like?
**Ever since the time of sin and unbelief entering into the world, the story of humanity has for the most part been a story of tragedy, and unspeakable human suffering, full of sorrow and death.
*For the past 6000 years of man’s rule upon the earth, the story of history has been predominantly filled with constant wars and suffering and sorrow and death.
And this suffering all began by the fact of Man’s separation from his fellowship with God in Eden.
It was the nature and character of man that had fallen from what a man’s character was supposed to be.
Man was created to have the very nature of God dwelling on the inside of his human spirit, and that was how it was with Adam until it became perverted by being mixed with unbelief of the word, and then the nature of the enemy (Lucifer) of which was pride came into a man’s heart, and ever since then, there has been this perverted kind of pride in the hearts of man, and this human pride and lust for power and wealth is what has fueled every war and so many other evil things - it has been the root cause of a great deal of human suffering.
*Today in our modern age, with all the industrial machinery and logistics, we could easily fix poverty and starvation, but instead we are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into inventing new ways to kill each other with wars.
Wars, wars, and rumors of wars. Cyber wars, Corporate wars, family wars, civil wars, national wars, world wars, star wars, on and on. Even wars within the human heart, like a civil war that rages inside a man’s mind between his spirit and his flesh – Brother Branham called that the greatest battle – the greatest war ever fought.
*Josephus writings of the history of the Jewish Wars is so full of incredible amounts of almost unbelievable human suffering – and this has been the human story from the beginning of man’s fall – but there is to be an end to this story – The Story of the End of Suffering, of when we shall all enter into that great SHALOM of an eternal day of Peace.
*I felt to listen again through the message “Shalom” preached on the morning of the 12th January 1964 in Sierra, Vista Arizona along with the message “On the Wings of a Snow White Dove” preached in Shreveport, Louisiana at Life Tabernacle on the evening of the 28th of November 1965 (Bro. Jack Moore being the pastor at the time).
This message “On the Wings of a Snow White Dove” was to be Brother Branham’s 6th to last message that he preached on earth before his suffering ended at Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo, Texas on the afternoon of the 24th of December 1965 – Christmas Eve. He had suffered for 6 days with his injuries after the car accident before he was taken home to be with the Lord.
*In this message “On the Wings of a Snow White Dove” There are many symbols of the number 6, and we know that 6 is the number of man’s suffering.
There were six doves. His enemy was 6 inches long, He had suffered for 6 lots of seven years (42) years – the same as the number of chapters in the book of Job, because Job is to do with the mystery of man’s suffering. Then he suffered in the hospital for 6 days. And so you will find these 6’s everywhere.
*But then also in this message, he begins to tell us this story about seeing the seventh dove of which he had longed to see all of his life, because he knew that somehow it would be this seventh dove that would break the cycle and end his suffering – and so he begins to tell us the story of the events that God was revealing to him that would lead him to the end of his suffering, because within one month from the time of preaching this message “On the Wings of a Snow White Dove”, all of his suffering had ended forever – he had flown away just as David had spoken about in Psalms 55.
**So in this message “On the Wings of a Snow White Dove” he is telling about a Shalom, of how this seventh dove was about to lead him into a new world of peace of which all earthly suffering would be ended forever.
**So when we consider his last month of life on earth, we find that he was suffering with this stomach condition of what he had had every 7 years repeatedly for the past 42 year, of 6 repetitive times (6x7=42), and now he was in the seventh time period of sevens, and in association with that was a from mental oppression that he also had to deal with.
And then in less that a month he is in the intensive care section of the Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo, and for the last 6 days of his life he is confined to a hospital bed in a broken condition of suffering with brain swelling and the pain of broken bones.
So this is a part of the story of the end of his suffering of this life – and for some good reason the Lord had all this placed in his life right at the end to help us understand something of this hour that we are living in, because God writes future prophecy into the life events of his prophets.
ON.THE.WINGS.OF.A.SNOW.WHITE.DOVE_ SHP.LA V-7 N-5 SUNDAY_ 65-1128E
143 And you don't know what I've suffered; just mental oppression. Every seven years it's come, all my life. That's where I'm at now, seven eights. (7x8=56 - and so he is now 56 years old and is again suffering with the same thing that has plagued him since he was a young man of around 14 years old)
144 So I was--I was so distressed; I cried, I begged, I pleaded.
145 And I remember when I finally thought I had enough money to go to Mayo's for an examination; they said, "They'll find what your trouble is."
A mighty prophet of God having to go to Mayo’s clinic to try to find out what is wrong with him! And he had to first save up his money before he could afford to go. This is a man that walked with God and spoke squirrels into existence and storms out of existence.
ON.THE.WINGS.OF.A.SNOW.WHITE.DOVE_ SHP.LA V-7 N-5 SUNDAY_ 65-1128E
225 Why, me an old man, suffered all my life, why did He heal me now? I believe I'll ride this trail again, I got to bring a Message!
We know how he road that trail again by the tapes and the books being copied and printed and distributed to a worldwide end time elected people – it was his recorded voice that would continue to sound. And so he was able to ride the trial of the opening of the word again in the hearts and the minds of the many elected seed of God that were still yet to be born.
**When we think of this message “On the Wings of a Snow-White Dove” we know that the dove is a symbol of a faithful messenger who brings a message, and that message is for the purpose of leadership from suffering into peace. And Brother Branham was looking for that seventh dove, because he knew that when he saw that seventh dove that it would mean the end of his suffering. **And so in this message, he is telling the story of the end of his suffering, and he talks about Noah being caught between two worlds and how the dove appears to him in order to lead him into a new world of peace.
ON.THE.WINGS.OF.A.SNOW.WHITE.DOVE_ SHP.LA V-7 N-5 SUNDAY_ 65-1128E
127 …a dove is a messenger. It was a messenger to Noah, to tell Noah that "there's peace again."
In the song that he sings at the end called “On the Wings of a Snow-White Dove”, there is a verse about Noah’s flood.
Noah had drifted
On the floods many days,
He searched for land,
In various ways;
Troubles he had some,
But not from above,
For God gave him His sign
On the wings of a dove.
GENESIS 8:9-11
9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
(Noah could not proceed into the new world without the leadership of the dove – that is why we needed the appearance of the seventh dove in this day, the Holy Spirit in the form of the message of the hour – because only the seventh dove can lead the eagle into the new land, no other church age messenger of the last 6 church ages could do it, it had to be the seventh – there was only suffering for the church ages, but the seventh church age takes the rapture)
10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
11 And the dove came in to him in the evening (Evening time is harvest time, and harvest time is the end of the world, and that is the time that we are living in now – this is all about the story of the ending of all human suffering, and in this day we see a prophet of God in the last few weeks of his life on earth tell us that that seventh dove was what he had been looking for his whole life – God wrote the suffering of the church ages in his life, but when that seventh dove came to him, he knew that it was time to cross over into another land – you can hear that in the message on the wings of a snow white dove (28th November 1965). When he saw that seventh dove, then he knew his time of suffering on earth was soon to be over, and within less than a month he had crossed over into the new land); and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
**Six inches long (The weasel looking animal) represents 6000 years of man’s suffering on the earth, but the appearing of the seventh dove at the end of the 6000 years is the sign that man’s suffering is to end and a new world of a great millennial age is soon to come.
So God is using Brother Branham’s life as a story of man’s 6000 years of suffering. And in this message, he is at the end of his life, because within one month he has gone over into that new land of where he had visited when he went beyond the curtain of time and of which his suffering has ended.
*And these 6 doves had appeared to him in the shape of an S of which was symbolic of his life of suffering, and then just before he leaves this world and goes into the new world, this seventh dove appears to him, the one he’s been looking for his whole life, showing him that he is at the end of his suffering and this seventh dove has come to lead him into the new earth. And the seventh dove to us is Christ in the form of the message of the hour – because it is the dove of the message of the hour that leads us into the new world of peace – this is our story of the end of our suffering also.
*These events of his life were sign-acts that God used to reveal a message to us of the time that we are living in now.
**The prophet Ezekiel had to sleep on one side for 390 and then on the other side for 40 days – prophets lives were a message by what they had to suffer.
*The book of Job has 42 chapters which is 6 lots of 7 which = 42. Six is man’s number representing 6000 years of man’s suffering.
Brother Branham suffered for 6 lots of 7 years (42 years).
So God is showing us the story of our redemption in this hour by the prophet’s life of suffering.
****This world of man’s kingdoms have seen nothing but suffering for six thousand years, but when that seventh dove appears at the end of the six thousand years (and that seventh dove is the ministry of the son of man), when he brings something in his mouth from that other land (remember that the evidence was in his mouth), that was the mouth of the seventh angel messenger, it was the message of the hour, and so when he begins to sound at the end of six thousand years, then we can go back to Eden again – we know that we are going to soon change worlds from a world of sin and sickness and suffering, into a world of peace and perfection.
**And those who receive this seventh dove with the message in his mouth, those are the ones who will be taken over into that new world of the millennial reign with Christ because the dove only came to Noah and his group; it did not come to the people of the world who were under judgement. And this dove has come to minister an entrance unto us into that new land by the evidence from that new land.
We have received the evidence from a new land by the opening of the seven seals by the mouth of the dove – Shalom – This is the story of the end of suffering for us.
**That’s what the message “It is the Rising of the Son” was all about – a brand-new eternal day of an eternal church age of an eternal partaking of the word.
*Noah had a story of the end of his suffering of a dove appearing and leading him into a new world.
Jesus had a story of the end of his suffering – of a dove leading him to Calvery and into a new world.
Brother Branham tells the story of the end of his suffering.
We can be sure that by the appearing of this seventh angel dove to us in this hour, that we are soon to enter into a new world of this millennial day of an eternal day of peace and joy that will never end – shalom, good morning, peace.
We are soon to fly away into a new world of where there is no more suffering, but peace – sholom for evermore.
ISAIAH 60:1-2
1 ¶ Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
SHALOM_ SIERRA.VISTA.AZ V-13 N-5 SUNDAY_ 64-0112
43 Then, the--the Church, the reason I'd say "Shalom" to them, is because that it's God's Peace. That's what I want to bring to you this morning, for the new year's, not looking back, but we're looking forward to the breaking of a new day. Until, there is something great laying ahead of us, where the years has been the joy that we've looked forward to, the pressing, coming of the great Light. And now we can see it breaking over the horizon, horizonal realm, it's breaking between mortal and immortality. We see it breaking between heavens and earth, from an earth-bound sickness and troubled world, into a bright shining day of an immortal Life and an immortal body and an immortal earth that shall never pass away. It--it's "Shalom," unto the--unto the Church. Now, it's Light time coming for the believers, but a gross darkness for the people.
SHALOM_ SIERRA.VISTA.AZ V-13 N-5 SUNDAY_ 64-0112
231 …There will be a Millennium! There will be a new day. There will be a day that the sun will never go down no more, for the... we'll need it no more, for the Lamb is the Light of the City to where we're going. Amen.
232 The dawning of a new day, I feel it all over me now. The Light of a new day! The Light of a day where there is no night, there is no darkness, no shadows, no skies, no--no dim, dark skies, no midnights, no graves, no flowers on the hillsides, no funeral processions, no doctors, no morgue. Amen. I--I can feel the--the rays of His Light breaking through upon my soul. The new day! The old one is pressing away.
233 As I feel the mortal blood pouring through my body, I feel the surge of the Holy Ghost come in behind it, "Rise, and shine."
SHALOM_ PHOENIX.AZ V-22 N-1 SUNDAY_ 64-0119
148 Now we see His Word vindicated. We believe. So if He vindicated the Word of today, what It is, what do I care about what the year brings? What do I care about next year? What do I care whether I live today or die today? Every Word that He promised will be vindicated, every one! If He is able to do it today, after promising it two thousand years ago; if it's a hundred thousand years, today, Jesus will return to the earth in a visible body, for a Church, a--a Redeemed, the Bride, and take Her out of here. Regardless of what comes, goes, fashions, saying "go on," and people can wade on in total darkness and believe anything they want to believe, but Jesus Christ will return again. I trust the future to Him, then. "Lord God, I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know You hold tomorrow."
Shalom - The Story of the End of Suffering