This First Book concludes with the Dragon being cast down from heaven.
The Second Book concludes with Cetus, the Sea Monster, Leviathan, bound.
The Third Book concludes with Hydra, the Old Serpent, destroyed.
Here, at the close of the First Book, we see not merely a dragon, but the Dragon cast down! That is the point of this great star-picture.
No one has ever seen a dragon; but among all nations (especially in China and Japan), and in all ages, we find it described and depicted in legend and in art. Both Old and New Testaments refer to it, and all unite in connecting with it one and the same great enemy of God and man.
It is against him that the God-Man—“the Son of God—goes forth to war.” It is for him that the [pg 071] eternal fires are prepared. It is he who shall shortly be cast down from the heavens preparatory to his completed judgment. It is of him we read, “The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out and his angels with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down” (Rev. xii. 9, 10).
It is of him that David sings:—
“God is my king of old,
Working salvation in the midst of the earth ...
Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.