To whom was the sign given?
To YisraEl, yes?
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep. The reason for the fresh inculcation of the fourth commandment at this particular period was, that the great ardour and eagerness with which all classes betook themselves to the construction of the tabernacle exposed them to the temptation of encroaching on the sanctity of the appointed day of rest. They might suppose that the erection of the tabernacle was a sacred work, and that it would be a high merit-an acceptable tribute-to prosecute the undertaking without the interruption of a day’s repose; and therefore the caution here given, at the commencement of the undertaking, was a seasonable admonition.
Verse 13. It is a sign between me and you throughout your generations. There is here an allusion to the separation of Israel as a special people to the service of God; and the keeping of the Sabbath was a sign or pledge of their national obligation to obey the whole law. The reference obviously is not to the institution of the Sabbath on the part of God, but to its observance on the part of the people; and the purpose of God in making a faithful performance of the Sabbath duties ’a sign between Him and the Israelites was, that they might become a holy and blessed people.’
Verse 14. Ye shall keep the sabbath ... every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death. It was as the king of Israel, who had made the sanctification of the Sabbath a fundamental law in the civil and political constitution of His kingdom, that He denounced the violation of it as a capital crime (see the notes at Num_15:32-36).
Verse 17. It is a sign between me and the children ... for ever. The Sabbath was a sign between God and the people of Israel which they were always to be careful in observing-a national peculiarity evinced by its being always prominently associated with the sanctity of the temple, new moons, and other feasts (Lev_19:30; Isa_1:13; Isa_66:23; Eze_45:17; Hos_2:11), and by its being one of the pledges which the proselyte had for participating in the blessings of the covenant (Isa_56:6-8).
"For ever," of course, means only commensurate with the duration of the Jewish economy (cf. Exo_12:14; Exo_12:17; Exo_12:24; Lev_16:34; Num_10:8). When the covenant was disannulled, the sign could not remain; and accordingly the seventh-day Sabbath is gone with the covenant (cf. Lev_26:15; Lev_27:1-34; Deu_28:1 with Eze_20:1-49; Hos_2:11): it was a type or shadow of the blessed rest in Christ; "for we who have believed do enter into rest."
JFB
None of which addresses the OP and How Matt. 24 tells us the Jesus expected His followers to be keeping the Sabbath up to and through the Tribulation prior to His coming in the clouds and the gathering of the elect. This is a fact that can not be proven wrong because the very grammar can't be argued against.
So with that, please by all means cite the OP and we can speak through it.
However in respect to JFB's confusion, his response is subjective. Sometimes forever means forever. And objectively speaking all who come to God are His children and are to live through Him who sanctifies. One tree Jesus Christ that nourishes us all through God. We and Israel are but branches. No longer two but one in Him. The Body of Christ, the Temple, the Building. We are but citizens of the household of God, extensions of It and Him. We in Him, He in us that the world might believe. This is how it was then and will always be. For it is the Lord our God that sanctifies.
Isa 56:3 Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
Isa 56:4 For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
Isa 56:5 Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
Isa 56:6 Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
Isa 56:7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
Deut 31:12 Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:
Num 9:14 And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the passover unto the LORD; according to the ordinance of the passover, and according to the manner thereof, so shall he do: ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.
Rom 11:17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Eph 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellowcitizens with the saints, and
of the household of God;
Eph 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone
Eph 2:21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
Eph 2:22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.