One of the main reasons that the true heartbreak of the Cross is missed is because of the institution of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament.

“ … On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb … Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.” Exodus 12:3–7

The impression these texts give is that God wants people to kill animals in sacrifice to Him and that when they do this He will bless them. But did God require these sacrifices? Does His justice demand that His wrath be appeased like the pagan gods of the other nations?