Proverbs 7:9

Many sins occur at night, especially sex sins. God warns you about darkness and night. Here is a young man out at night looking for sin and is met by an adulteress. In a long parable, King Solomon described the ruin of a young fool by casual sex (Pr 7:6-27).

Young man, be careful and cautious. There is more temptation at night; the duties of the day that keep men occupied are over; you will foolishly think you can hide under the cover of darkness. Wise men go home early; godly men know to stay home after supper.

A young fool looking for a whore begins his search “in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night.” He does not go near her house in broad daylight, for he would be seen; and she is not as easily found then either, for she must also hide her activities.

Job described adulterers this way: “The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face” (Job 24:15). In another place, Job goes much further to describe how various wicked men hate the light (Job 24:13-17).

Sin causes guilt and shame, and it brings punishment, so men hide sinful activities from view. Jesus said wicked men love darkness to hide their sins, lest the light reveal their evil (John 3:19-21). Adam and Eve tried to hide their nakedness with fig leaves and the trees of the garden (Gen 3:7-8). But darkness has always been the favorite cloak for sex.

During daylight, even bad sections of a city look free from sin and vice; but after dark, they are filled with wicked persons using the night to hide identities and activities. Drunkenness, fornication, prostitution, robbery, and murder all greatly increase at night.

Bars for meeting sinners for fornication are called nightclubs for good reason – they would not work well as dayclubs! Las Vegas, an American moral cesspool, does most of her business at night. Casinos are experts in human depravity and fulfill the proverb.

Restaurants and lounges at night turn the lights down and the music up, for any woman looks better in dull light after a few drinks with fleshly music. The boldness to pursue drunkenness, fornication, and other sins is greatly encouraged by the cover of darkness.

Television programming after 9:00, the watershed hour, is carefully designed for adult audiences with intense and immoral shows or movies. With legitimate and productive activities over, adults can put the children to bed and fill their minds with ungodly images and conduct to corrupt their souls and thoughts during the night. Movie theaters also are mostly attended at night, and well into the night, with sinful sex a primary theme of both.

Your grandparents had a better routine before electricity brought television, movies, and countless activities at night. They went to bed with the birds and got up with them; there was no time or opportunity for cruising, carousing, or clubbing at night. They started each day early and worked hard, and they ended each day not long after supper.

They kept a schedule that promoted that sober time of quietness and resolve in the morning that is now lost. Their emphasis was on how much they could get done in the morning rather than surviving the day to be able to play at night. Their sobriety condemns this generation, which is addicted to amusements and pleasure, and much of it at night.

It was once an adage of America, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Christians could rightly add godliness to that formula, for it is generally God-approved activities that take place from morning until afternoon. Today’s Americans foolishly make fun of any “old fogey” that would go to bed before 9:00 P.M.

If David had stayed in bed with one of his beautiful and eager wives, he would never have seen Bathsheba using the cover of darkness for a bath (II Sam 11:2). What a foolish choice to leave his bedroom and go out at night from the safety of his house. The consequences of just one night out wandering around haunted him for the rest of his life.

Not all night activities are wrong, as Paul once preached to midnight and beyond (Acts 20:7-11). The Lord Jesus prayed all night on occasion, due to the demands of the crowds during the day (Luke 6:12). Shepherds were abiding in the field at night when they heard the announcement of the Lord’s birth. But these were exceptions and for godly purposes.

Curfews for youth are excellent rules, for the minds of foolish teenagers are more prone to the lusts of the flesh after dark, when their actions will be hid and their consciences emboldened to try things they might otherwise avoid. Getting them up early and requiring them to work hard will leave them tired and craving bed when night finally arrives.

Let this short proverb affect you two ways. First, be more aware of the sexual temptations at night. Second, consider adjusting your schedule toward mornings with a reduction of plans at night. Limit children’s activities after supper and teach them habits to reduce the temptations of darkness. May the Light of the world save you and your children.

Throughout the New Testament, Christians are described as the children of the day, not of the darkness. They are to live and walk as children of light in this dark world – the lesson of the proverb being used extensively by the Lord and His apostles (Luke 16:8; John 1:4-9; 3:19-21; 11:9-10; 12:35-36,46; Acts 26:18; Rom 13:11-14; I Cor 4:5; II Cor 4:6; 6:14; Eph 5:8-14; 6:12; Col 1:13; I Thess 5:1-8; I Pet 2:9; I John 1:5-6; 2:8-11).

If you are a child of God, you should remember and consider there will be no darkness or night in heaven at all, for the Lamb of God will be the perpetual and glorious light of that place (Rev 21:23,25; 22:5). But the wicked will howl in the black mist of impenetrable darkness forever, for there will be no light or day in hell at all (II Pet 2:4,17; Jude 1:13). They who loved darkness and night will have their fill of both, and then some, forever!