Proverbs 7:1-5

Before Solomon tells you what happened to the young man, he hands you the armor the young man wasn't wearing.

"Keep my law as the apple of thine eye" — the pupil, the one part of your body your reflexes defend without being asked. A speck of dust in the eye stops a grown man cold. That, says the father, is how to guard the Word: instantly, jealously, at the smallest intrusion — because the least compromise with it works like the least mote in the eye, and inward bleeding can kill a man who shows no wound. "Bind them upon thy fingers": where you'll see them in every small action of the day. "Write them upon the table of thine heart": deeper than habit — conviction.

Then verse 4 gives the strategy of the whole chapter in one tender phrase: "Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister." Not "my subject of study." My sister — family, affection, loyalty, warmth. Here is the deep psychology of purity, and don't miss it: the heart is not defended by vacancy. You cannot just not love the strange woman; you must love something better first. It is wisdom's embrace that throws the harlot's beauty into the shade — the expulsive power of a greater affection. If wisdom is not loved, lust will be indulged; the empty house gets new tenants (Matthew 12:44). Verse 5 says it straight: the love of wisdom is the protection from the flattery of the stranger. Now — the window.