For at the window of my house
I looked through my lattice,
And saw among the simple,
I perceived among the youths,
A young man devoid of understanding,
Passing along the street near her corner;
And he took the path to her house
In the twilight, in the evening,
In the black and dark night.
Proverbs 7:6-9 (NKJV).
The phrase "if you play with fire, you're going to get burned" is meant to carry both literal and figurative meaning. A similar one is "a double-edged sword". Fires are a necessary component to advanced civilization, and swords are among the most efficient weapons for human combat.
In both phrases, what is trying to be communicated is that power comes at a price, that you cannot wield it without care, without discipline, without intention.
And the power to make choices and manifest actions is an even simpler power that humans have and often take entirely for granted.
In other writings across the internet, I've discussed the "decision making inputs" in the conceptual model I use for how people make a decision. Simply, that when humans make a choice, there are multiple inputs, not a singular cohesive stream of consciousness, and the one with the most persuasive power "wins out" and is then followed by the individual.
In animals, this almost always looks like:
Instinct = Decision
Even domesticated animals are merely "tamed" in the sense that we have found a way to short-circuit their instincts in a way that benefits us, and maybe even in turn them. A dog is still trying to be just like a wild wolf, but due to the genetic predisposition from selective breeding, in addition to the efforts of humans to "train" them through the use of conditioning, the instincts of the dog are re-written such that, while still lacking sentience, the dog's personality and behavior aligns to that of "their alpha" as part of a long-refined survival and reproductive strategy.
Some animals are nearly impossible to domesticate, and while it's entertaining to try and postulate that there is some spiritually significant reason why, the most simple answer is that unless a creature was created by God with the intent that they could be tamed, they can't be, because that "programming" exists in their genetics, and they don't have any other "inputs" to their decision making process.
If it wasn't genetic, then even the selective breeding done the "old fashioned way" would not have produced results, whether we're talking livestock or crops. Regardless of your opinion on GMOs, by definition if what is being done through that process does produce a result with tangible consequences, you must start every argument for or against that process with the full understanding of the power of genetics over the "default settings" of an organism.
For humans, our equation starts out like this:
Instinct + Intellect = Decision
Humans have an additional input to this process, and that's where the moral significance of our choices comes from, while not negating that we have instincts and "defaults" in our behavior patterns which come from our genetics, because without that input to decision making, we'd be puppets just acting out our biological "programming". Even so, the equation doesn't stop there for us.
Instinct + (Intellect + Wisdom) = Decision
Wisdom is often external, not something that we find in us as much as discover to be true. Much of Proverbs is geared towards this type of input, and while Solomon exhorts us to make that wisdom a part of us, to make it ingrained into our "hearts" or "minds", the source of that wisdom was outside of us.
Now, if you've placed your faith in Jesus Christ? It changes yet again.
Instinct + (Intellect + Wisdom) + Holy Spirit = Decision
Our instincts and our intellect are all "of the flesh", but when we've been saved by Jesus Christ, we are imparted with a manifestation of God in the Holy Spirit that is a helper to us, and acts like another input into our decision making process to make our alignment with God's desires for us possible in the first place.
So why am I talking about all this?
The young man that Solomon is talking about, lacking understanding, is just running on instincts, not really thinking about or understanding what he's doing, and walking right into danger, possibly on purpose. In the daylight, it's harder to hide inappropriate interactions because everyone can see what's going on, everyone can see who is talking to who, the facial expressions, and so on, yet this young man is walking down the street near the corner of the harlot.
While responsibility is always superior to prohibition, some temptations are not worth exposing yourself to. While it'd be possible to visit, say, a beach in a sunny land and avoid lusting after women dressed in manners which accentuate their physical beauty, you'd still be playing with fire.
Likewise Solomon is trying to do is set the story up so that we know that this temptation likely could have been avoided altogether. That the choices of the young man are directly leading him towards temptation, and while having trust in God can help us escape temptation, we should not behave in a way which invites temptation into our lives through our own foolishness or ignorance. For as much as Solomon will speak poorly as to the intent of the harlot, blame is laid at the foot of those who go into her for not exercising control and discipline in all that lead up to their meeting with her.
Darkness, providing a type of isolation, can then sometimes be what gives us opportunity to sin. where we think the consequences of our choices will not be found out, that maybe we'll "get away with it."
The truth, as Solomon will detail as as he continues, is that nobody escapes the consequences of sin, and we only deceive ourselves when we think otherwise. So act with understanding, of all that you do and why, and learn just how your own behavior may be inviting destruction into your life.
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