^12:4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.

• Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.

  The literal view is that the cosmic response to the heaven and earth conflict will be a multitude of asteroids or similar stellar shower. Since most stars are many times larger than the earth and are 'burning', this would be the end of the physical earth as we know it. Thus the symbolic view is preferred in this instance. However, don't discount the physical phenomena from happening!

  The symbolic view is that the WOMAN (verse 1) is a collective view of Israel. That is, the 12 stars are the twelve tribes of Judah. Then this part of this verse would be that a third of Israelis will be killed, "thrown to the earth" (Matthew 24:15-22-28). See how Daniel saw this verse in Daniel 8:9-14.

  This conflict has gone on throughout history

  1. Cain killing Abel
  2. Pharoah/Moses
  3. Saul/David
  4. Babylonian/Captivity
  5. Herod/Jesus
  6. People/Jesus (Luke 4:28-30)
  7. Government/church

• The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.

  From the DRAGON viewpoint, he has to kill the child coming from the woman. According to 1 John 3:7-10, this is the reason Jesus came to the earth: that He might destroy the works of the devil. In a real sense, when Jesus said "unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3), Satan is standing right in front of you waiting to DEVOUR you as soon as you say "YES" to Jesus. Even after you say yes, Satan is still trying to kill Christ who lives in us. But since the devil is not successful (see the rest of this chapter), we have our HOPE OF GLORY (Colossians 1:24-29)!