Revelation 12:4

Revelation 12:4. His tail draweth the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth. The second particular thus mentioned of the dragon has relation to what he does, and is in contrast with what had been said of the woman when we were told that she ‘was with child.' The present tense of the first half of the sentence shows that the words describe a characteristic of the dragon, an element of his nature, and not something that happened at the moment. The woman was pregnant with life, the dragon can do nothing but destroy. Mention has been so frequently made of a ‘third part' of things (chaps. Revelation 8:7-12; Revelation 9:15; Revelation 9:18) that we cannot be surprised at meeting it again, and all that it seems possible to say is that the proportion is not to be too literally interpreted. Enough that it designates great influence for evil, yet influence restrained by a power mightier than its own. The second half of the sentence is founded upon Daniel 8:10, and the allusion in the mention of ‘stars' is to powers originally heavenly. Against men who are made to shine as stars in the heavenly firmament the dragon can do nothing. They have rather trampled him beneath their feet and gained over him an everlasting victory. The ‘stars of heaven' spoken of can only be those angels of whom it is elsewhere said that they ‘kept not their first estate' (Jude, Revelation 12:6). In this particular the work of the dragon is again presented to us as the exact counterpart of that of the woman

‘She raises mortals to the skies,

He draws the angels down.'

And the dragon stood before the woman which was about to be delivered that, when she is delivered, he may devour her child. In these words we have the dragon doing what Pharaoh did to Israel (Exodus 1:15-22), and again and again in the Psalms and Prophets Pharaoh is spoken of as the dragon (Psalms 74:13; Isaiah 27:1; Isaiah 51:9; Ezekiel 29:3). Nor is it without interest in this connection to remember that Pharaoh's crown was wreathed with a dragon (the asp or serpent of Egypt), and that just as the eagle was the ensign of Rome so the dragon was that of Egypt. Hence the significance of Moses' rod being turned into a serpent. It is worth while to notice, too, how entirely the imagery agrees with the record of the infancy of our Lord in St Matthew's Gospel (comp. especially Matthew 2:13; Matthew 2:15). The motive alike of Pharaoh and of Herod was envy, Satan's motive. In this verse also the dragon is in direct contrast with the woman. She is to bear a living child: he would destroy it as soon as it was born.