2 Nephi 9

2 Nephi 9:2 When they shall be gathered home to the lands of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise. There seems to be a really big fixation with promised lands and lands for inheritance throughout scripture. It's one of the pillars of the Abrahamic Covenant--specific lands were covenanted to be given to him and his posterity as part of his deal with God. It was reiterated with Isaac (and very notably refuted with Ishmael when Abraham asked if it could be through him), and was again confirmed with Jacob. But why was it so important that you have land (and more particularly, specific lands) when Christ comes? We know that the earth will be renewed and become the Celestial Kingdom after the Millennial reign of Christ, and perhaps the deed transfers and the covenant of land is actually a ticket to the Celestial kingdom.

But the people in scripture seem to have a fixation on the land of their fathers. Zeniff and his people with the land of Lehi-Nephi, the Jews throughout the Old Testament. And it seems to be supported by the Lord, in that he tells people to go take certain lands away from others because he has given them to them. It's the kind of thing that really wouldn't go over well today: "Hey, I've given you Phoenix. Go kill the people who are currently living there and move into their houses." But the fact that they didn't have to build the houses, plant the crops, dig the wells, etc. was a major part of the deal with inheriting the land of Israel when Joshua led them across the Jordan river after the Exodus. Will this happen again if we start expanding outward to new planets? I could easily envision the whole Old Testament being acted out on a cosmic scale a couple of hundred years from now.