Deuteronomy 7: 17 - 26

 If you say to yourself, ‘These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?’ ¹⁸do not be afraid of them. Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, ¹⁹the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰Moreover, the Lord your God will send the pestilence^* against them, until even the survivors and the fugitives are destroyed. ²¹Have no dread of them, for the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God. ²²The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to make a quick end of them, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you. ²³But the Lord your God will give them over to you, and throw them into great panic, until they are destroyed. ²⁴He will hand their kings over to you and you shall blot out their name from under heaven; no one will be able to stand against you, until you have destroyed them. ²⁵The images of their gods you shall burn with fire. Do not covet the silver or the gold that is on them and take it for yourself, because you could be ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God. ²⁶Do not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You must utterly detest and abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction.

1. So interesting to me that Moses says that "Yahweh, your God" will clear out the evil nations, "little by little ... otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you." Why doesn't God work the miracles we want for our perceived good instantaneously? He has his reasons, and those reasons are for our own good. It is God who has to do the hard work of crushing our enemies, but that does not mean that it happens quickly and without our agency. We fight, but it is his might. Maybe if it happened quickly, we would think it was our own agency that won the battle, forgetting God's power and letting loose the wild animals of human pride and arrogance.

2. The idols of the enemy you must destroy; you might think that you can take it and make it into something good, but you can't. No matter how valuable the substance might be in another context, it cannot be converted to something useful and good to you. Its power to ensnare has not been diminished. You must completely destroy it. So, for instance, don't think that you can love money "in the name of the Lord," somehow redeeming that idol.