These are insights that came to me after watching the movie entitled "25^th Hour" by Spike Lee. They are listed in the order they came to me so they may seem unconnected, yet still not "spoil" the movie for you if you have not seen it yet. I highly recommend that you see the movie. It is in the video stores now. Spike Lee has a profoundly important message for us today in relation to our "coming out of Babylon"!

It is about a young man who was betrayed by someone and the DEA found him with drugs and he was convicted and was supposed to report to prison the next day.

He contacted his friends so he could say his final good-byes. His friends said he deserved to go to jail for dealing in drugs and living off of other peoples' misery. After making final arrangements with his drug boss and saying goodbye to his Dad and girlfriend, he had his friend beat him up so he would look ugly and then maybe survive in prison. However, even in prison, his drug boss said you would have to beat up others in order to survive.

It is all about being in warfare.

In a bathroom scene, after eating dinner with his Dad, he has this diatribe about society, about all races and religions, that it is all a big lie and so futile, he blamed everyone, and then he realized he was to blame too. He saw that he was just as bad and he hated himself, and what he had done to others. He came to a heartfelt repentance, and accepted the deserved penalty of going to jail, where he knew terrible things would happen to him.

Then, after being beat up by his friend, his Dad came to drive him to jail. On the way, he watched everyone smiling at him from the sidewalk as he drove by, they were from each race and religion, and they were smiling at him, as if they were forgiving him (note that "25" is the Biblical number for "forgiveness").

However, as his Dad began to approach the George Washington Bridge in New York, he told his son that there was still a chance to make a run for it from prison and start over. He could start a new life out West, in the desert Southwest, in some small town where he could serve people, since he had a knack for making friends and being likeable. His Dad said he would have to leave New York and his friends and NEVER come back to the "city" or make any contact with them, EVER. He would have to take a new name and register it, and get a job and make an honest living and only take "cash" (not be in the "system").

His Dad is like our Father in Heaven. He will give us a chance to start over, once we have truly repented from "beating up our brothers" in commerce and come out of the "city" and go West to the unspoiled "desert" for our remedy, to raise a "family" in love and in service to others.

So, he allowed his Dad to take him West, and then there is a scene of him standing in the desert, next to the Interstate, and you could see he really felt the freedom of being out of commerce and the hope of being able to make a new start. And he did raise a family. Four years later his girlfriend in New York was told by his father where his son was, and she went out West to marry him.

In a final scene, he is shown telling his children how close it was to not happening, having his wife and family. If his Dad had not insisted on driving him to prison, and then taken him West to start over, he would have died in prison, in "warfare".

In like manner, unless we "come to ourselves" and repent of "beating up our brothers", and our heavenly Dad intervenes to deliver us, we will also die in this world of commercial warfare. We will not fulfill His Plan for us to "raise a family in the desert", which today, in this end time, is referring to His "Holy Nation" of Isaiah and the Minor Prophets. This is the real message of this movie, and it is vital for us to "get it" if we want be a part of that "Holy Nation" family that will be the light for others to come out of Babylon and serve the Creator and one another.