When Israel enters the Land, the Torah expects a specific kind of work — not only settlement, but demolition.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:24) commands: Thou shalt not worship their idols, nor serve them, nor do after their evil works; but thou shalt utterly demolish the house of their worship, and break the statues of their images.
Why the Temples Must Fall
The Torah is not satisfied with a quiet refusal. It demands active dismantling. Every temple of a foreign god must come down. Every pillar and statue must be broken. The Land cannot hold two loyalties.
The logic is psychological. Shrines that remain become familiar. Familiarity becomes curiosity. Curiosity becomes participation. Generations later, Israel's children stand in front of a shrine their ancestors failed to demolish, and the shrine has worked its slow pull. So the Torah closes the door before it opens — by reducing the door to rubble.
The Threefold Prohibition
Notice the sequence. Do not worship. Do not serve. Do not imitate. The three steps by which idolatry infects a culture. Worship is the formal act. Service is the embedded habit. Imitation — do not do after their evil works — is the subtlest. You may not even adopt the moral frameworks of peoples whose gods you have rejected. Their ethics carry the residue of their theology.
The Takeaway
Exclusivity of worship in the Torah is not a preference — it is a demolition project. The Land is holy because of what is built on it and, equally, because of what is not allowed to remain standing.