Lehi's Tent

"And my father dwelt in a Tent" - ok, what's your point Nephi?  I listened to an excellent talk a while back on scripture study.  One of the key points that was made is that the scriptural writing model limits details to a bare minimum.  We don't, for example, know the names of Ishmael's wife, sons, or daughters.  We know nothing of the other inhabitants of America (except the Mulekites who play such a key role in The Book of Mormon), etc.  So when we see details, according to this talk, we can generally expect that they are guiding us into a soon to come important point.  So why, when engraving on plates is so tedius, does Nephi feel it is important to tell us his father was living in a tent?  I have three theories, and I'm not particularly fond of any of them, but they're the best I've been able to come up with.

Because Lehi is wealthy

I imagine that having a tent was not totally common back then.  Furthermore, having the ability to carry a tent and various supplies with your family was likely unusual as well.  Given that Lehi "left his gold, and his silver, and his precious things" rather than selling them, the implication appears to be that Lehi was very wealthy.  He had enough camels and provisions to take off into the wilderness without even needing to sell anything to pay for it.  So perhaps that point is being reinforced by the tent comment.  To tell us that Lehi and his family left a life of luxury to sojourn in the wilderness.

Because Lehi's circumstances were humble

Or, perhaps it was the opposite.  Perhaps his point was to show that his wealthy and well to do father left EVERYTHING behind and was forced to go from a nice home to a tent.  And that he had done this all willingly, because the Lord asked it of him.

We're setting things up for the Liahona

Or maybe I'm over thinking this.  Perhaps we're just foreshadowing the discovery of the liahona outside of this very same tent?

I don't really know what to think on this one, but I'm pretty confident that it is somehow important.