The first section of this book, composed of the first eleven chapters, covers all things that occur from Christ's ascension to eternity. The second section, composed of the last eleven chapters, gives details of the important things and crucial matters occurring from the last three and a half years of the present age, which will be the period of the great tribulation, to the eternal age of the new heaven and new earth. The first of the important things and crucial matters revealed in this section is a woman who brought forth a man-child.
This woman is "clothed with the sun, and the moon underneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." In Gen. 37:9, Joseph in his dream saw the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars, signifying his father, his mother, and his eleven brothers. There the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars, plus Joseph himself, signified the totality of God's people on the earth. Based on the principle of that dream, the sun, the moon, and the twelve stars here must signify the totality of God's people on earth, which is symbolized here by a woman. Most of her being is clothed with the sun. The sun signifies God's people in the New Testament age. Before Christ came to the world, it was the dark night of the Old Testament age. When Christ as the rising sun came from on high (Luke 1:78), the age of the sun came. Before that, it was the age of the moon, which signifies God's people in the Old Testament time. The moon is underneath the feet of the woman, for the age of the moon was the age of the law, which should not be exalted as the stars are. The stars, which signify the patriarchs, God's people before the law was given, are on her head as a crown. All God's people in these three ages, who together constitute this woman, are light bearers. Hence, she is the bright woman shining throughout all generations.