<p>12:4 <em>And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and he did throw them to the earth; and the dragon stands before the woman that is about to give birth, so that when she gives birth he may devour her child</em>- A dragon waves its tail before it pounces. The decorum of the symbol may mean that this is but the prelude to a greater, final destruction which the dragon wants to achieve. The earlier visions have described how 'thirds' of the people in the land are destroyed. Here we have this described in dramatic terms; a third of the stars (referring to the sons of Jacob, Gen. 37; or possibly to their leaders) are thrown to the earth, in order to be trampled; we have just read of Jerusalem being trampled for three and a half years in 11:2. But the dragon at the same time intends to destroy the seed of the woman, the Christian believers, her newborn male child.</p><p>The attempt to destroy the newborn boy child is of course framed in terms of Pharaoh&rsquo;s attempt to destroy the baby boys of Israel in Egypt, and Herod's attempt to do the same to the Lord Jesus at His birth. But neither Pharaoh nor Herod achieved their aim; the baby boys of Israel, especially Moses, were somehow preserved; as was the Lord Jesus from Herod's intentions.</p><p>The coalition dominating the land promised to Abraham therefore seeks also to persecute the Christians there and not simply orthodox Jews. Is. 37:3 uses a significant figure in this context to describe how when Jerusalem was surrounded by the Assyrians, with much of the land and people desolated, something was conceived, but there appeared no strength to deliver the child. That person conceived was a repentant remnant of Judah, who were perhaps prefigured by Isaiah's children of sign, and the unusual conception of his wife in Isaiah 7 which became typical of the Lord's conception and birth of a virgin.</p><p>The intention of all the latter day trauma which Revelation describes is to bring about the repentance of a remnant. This group of genuine Christians within the land, perhaps largely Jews, will elicit the especial wrath and attention of the dragon coalition. But just as the two witnesses of chapter 11 were miraculously preserved for three and a half years, so the woman and her child are likewise.</p><p>The little horn of Daniel 8 is connected with the dragon:</p><table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>    <tbody>        <tr>            <td width=201 valign=top>            <p>&quot;. . . it   cast down some ... of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them&quot;</p>            </td>            <td width=204 valign=top>            <p>&quot;And his   tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the   earth&quot;</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=201 valign=top>            <p>(Daniel 8:10)</p>            </td>            <td width=204 valign=top>            <p>(Revelation   12:4)</p>            </td>        </tr>    </tbody></table><p>The dragon drew a third of the stars of heaven to the earth with his tail. If this is read literally &ndash; and Revelation 12 has to be read literally to support the Popular Interpretation &ndash; the sheer size of the dragon is immense &ndash; a third of the whole universe (or solar system at least) could be contained just on his tail. There is no way the planet earth would be big enough to contain such huge creature sprawling over it. Most of the stars of the solar system are bigger than our earth &ndash; how then could a third of them land on earth? And remember that all this happened, or will happen, after the first century A.D., when this prophecy was given.</p>