It's common in Christian religions to find a few Bible verses to make a particular point, but then leave out any context that might be completely contrary to the point that is trying to be made. It's not merely common -- entire doctrines of a great many religions rely on this practice, and the members of those religions either lack curiosity or they just follow along out of tradition and faith in their churches' leaders without questioning whether or not what they are learning and teaching others is what their Holy Book is trying to tell them.
I see this very often in religious memes that are shared online. Take the one below, for example. The point the person who shares this wants to drive home is that "FOREIGNERS ARE GOING TO TAKE EVERYTHING THAT'S YOURS!!! IT'S RIGHT THERE IN THE BIBLE!" There it is, angrily underlined in red ink with a digitally-added pink border (in case you miss the red ink emphasis). And then people will comment, "Yup. That's what's happening now!" and "They're letting it happen, just like the Bible said!" and "Amen!" while they rage against foreigners and rage against people who don't want to let them drown and against people who want to adopt sensible immigration laws. But the people who share and praise this meme seem to ignore everything written below the highlighted part.
Had I been using this Bible page to create a meme that would use selective verses, I would have underlined and higlighted the next few sentences which explain why this could potentially happen to a society.
In the first place, this isn't "end-times prophecy". It's a section of the Book of Deuteronomy where Moses is telling the people he had led out of Egypt about the blessings that will happen if they obey their God, and of the curses that will befall them if they don't. The first part of Deuteronomy 28 talks about all of the wonderful blessings that would be in store if these people would conduct themselves as they are supposed to. Then the second part of Deuteronomy 28 (part of which is shown above) lays out what would happen if these people choose instead to reject what Moses had told them that God commanded. The choice was theirs to make, whether they were going to obey the commandments of God or not. Did these people want to be blessed or cursed? Moses let them know what was at stake. It had nothing to do with "end times". All the same, a curious Bible reader might want to have a look at what God was commanding, just to be on the safe side.
Let's be real -- most Christian religions don't give a hoot about the Laws that God gave to the children of Abraham in the Old Testament outside of the "Big Ten" Commandments (with the exception of those very few verses about homosexuals some always seem to have on hand). They are taught that the Laws that Moses gave don't apply to them. In the popular series "The Chosen" the actor playing the role of Jesus Christ says, "I am the law of Moses", and even though Jesus never said that, a lot of Christians have lately been quoting those words as if Jesus of Nazareth actually did. They completely ignore what Jesus said about these laws in Matthew 5.
But back to Deuteronomy 28 -- the blessings and curses -- if you keep reading, it goes on about how after people who have been cursed decide to obey God again then they'll be blessed again. So if you're a Christian it might be a good idea to find out exactly what those commandments are that the God people are sharing these memes about finds so important. They may be surprised to find out how many of those laws command people to be kind to the foreigners -- as one rare, sensible commenter pointed out after seeing the meme above:
There are lots of laws and verses about being kind to foreigners, poor people, widows, orphans, and you fellow human beings in general (even the ones who don't share your political beliefs). So instead of taking things that Moses said out of context to stir up political hatred on social media against people who weren't born here and those who want to help them, perhaps they should try to do what God actually said to do so that they don't bring all of those horrible curses they are trying to frighten people with upon themselves. Just go for the blessings instead.
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