I gotta have my orange juice.

And Yahweh said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says Yahweh: “Israel is my son, my firstborn. So I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.”’”

And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that Yahweh met him and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a husband of blood to me!” So he let him go. Then she said, “You are a husband of blood!”—because of the circumcision. (Exodus 4:21-26)

God requires the dedication of children to him. The children of the unrighteous are destroyed, while the children of the righteous are covenanted to him—on pain of death (in the case of Moses) or of excommunication:

And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant. (Genesis 17:14)

This is why the Westminster Confession of Faith reminds us that “it [is] a great sin to contemn or neglect” baptism, including the baptism of our little ones. It is noteworthy that Moses faces this opposition from God on his way to be rejoined to God’s people; in fact, on his way to make preparations for a feast: it is especially important for our children to wear the sign of God’s covenant with them when they enter into his presence in worship.

Likewise, it is a great sin to contemn or neglect our little ones’ participation in the Lord’s Supper. I have written of how strongly this is implied by the New Testament food laws (do not destroy or stumble your brother; you will either be eating at God’s table or the table of demons; examine yourself; discern the body; wait for one another; walk straightforwardly about the truth of the gospel). But this requirement also goes back to the time that the church was given the name of Israel:

But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of Yahweh at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin. (Numbers 9:13)

Are you clean (1 Corinthians 7:14)? You must be baptized and you must participate in the feast. In neglect of this command, the evangelical church has largely excommunicated her children. Until she repents of despising God’s children in this way, God will oppose her just as he opposed Moses.