Numbers 33:52
Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:
On entering Canaan Israel was commanded by God to drive out all its inhabitants from before them and to destroy their pictures, their molten images, and to quite pluck down all their high places. They were to dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it as the land God had given them. Every object and site of idolatrous worship was to be destroyed because these outward tokens could entice them into idolatry, so nothing connected with heathen worship was to be spared, however valuable or finely wrought it might be.
The command called for prompt and complete obedience, not yielding to fear or idleness or self-interest or to human ideas of mercy. It also teaches resistance to sin and the overcoming of every sinful desire and trait of character, since sin left unchecked will work ruin.