These images are powerful reminders of the very things Nephi has been lecturing about. A “day of salvation” and God’s help for us, is another strong reminder of how we ought to be viewing these latterdays. Getting a “servant” for “a covenant” is not merely descriptive of the Lord, who fulfills such a promise wonderfully.
It can also apply to any of the Lord’s servants whose calling and ministry allow “the people” to have a “covenant.” Latter-day Prophets, temple presidents, temple sealers, Mission Presidents, missionaries, Relief Society Presidents, Bishops, visiting teachers, Primary teachers, and many, many others can be described with these same terms. Indeed, the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times is the great day of the Lord’s “servant” being given “for a covenant of the people.” His servants labor to bring Gospel covenants, including baptism, to all people.
As Zion becomes the daughter of covenant-keeping, so the earth itself becomes “established.” It will be a final refuge for the righteous, who in the end will be among the “meek, who inherit the earth.”
Inheriting the “desolate heritages” is an allusion by Nephi to the return of covenant in the latter-days. The original covenant with Israel is desolate, or forgotten. It was broken, and those who held the covenant and should have benefitted from it, have forsaken it. No active covenant-keeping people were on the earth in 1820. Yet it was not to remain so. There is a promise of an “inheritance” of these “desolate heritages” with new life to spring up again. They will be renewed, refreshed and the waters of life will return to the desert. Living water (suggesting the baptismal covenant which requires water to celebrate this rite), symbolizes not only newness of birth, but newness of life itself. Life cannot exist without water.
The “living waters,” which are Christ, allow all who drink to eternally avoid thirst, and what was once “desolate,” now becomes watered and as Eden. To put it another way, those whose covenant relationship did not exist are now again people of the covenant. As a result, they receive communion with God through the Gift of the Holy Ghost. From this source of revelation, they can drink and never thirst; or never lack in Divine guidance for their lives. Oddly, those with the promise of this Gift of the Holy Ghost oftentimes neither seek for, nor want personal revelation to guide them.