Symbolism of the Liahona

On the morning of their departure from the Valley of Lemuel, Lehi and his family awoke to discover a unique gift from the Lord:¹

And it came to pass that as my father arose in the morning, and went forth to the tent door, to his great astonishment he beheld upon the ground a round ball of curious workmanship; and it was of fine brass. And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness. (1 Nephi 16:10)

According to the prophet Alma, this was “the thing which our fathers call a ball, or director—or our fathers called it Liahona,² which is, being interpreted, a compass; and the Lord prepared it” (Alma 37:38).³ The Liahona played a prominent role in helping guide Lehi’s family to the promised land. Thereafter, it was kept among the Nephites as a type of sacred relic or national treasure, along with the brass plates, sword of Laban, and the interpreters (Mosiah 1:16; Alma 37:38–47).

Don Bradley has proposed that just as the Israelite Ark of the Covenant held sacred religious artifacts related to the founding of the Israelite nation, the Nephite relics—including the Liahona—functioned in a similar manner.⁴ Specifically, the Ark of the Covenant was known to contain (or was otherwise associated with) a golden pot of manna, the rod of Aaron which budded, the brazen serpent, the Urim and Thummim, and the Stone Tablets from Mt. Sinai (Hebrews 9:4). Remarkably, the Liahona has parallels to each of these items.

The Liahona and the Manna

The similarities between the Liahona and the manna are striking. Both were miraculous gifts from God, both were discovered in the morning, both were discovered upon the ground, both were round in appearance,⁵ and both helped travelers during their respective wilderness journeys:

Furthermore, each item specifically helped wandering travelers avoid starvation in a desolate wilderness. The manna itself was food, while the Liahona helped Lehi’s family get food by directing them to fertile areas and wild game (1 Nephi 16:16, 30–31). In each narrative, the miraculous procurement of food is also associated closely with bouts of murmuring, with each group claiming that their leaders brought them into the wilderness to perish with hunger:⁶

Thus, not only are the Liahona and the manna described in a similar manner, but they also function in a similar way and are introduced in similar narrative contexts.

The Liahona and Aaron’s Rod

In the Bible, the Lord commanded Moses to take twelve rods, each one for a prince of the house of Israel, and “write thou every man’s name upon his rod” (Numbers 17:2). Moses was then to place them in front of the Ark of the Covenant contained in the tabernacle (v. 4). On the next day, Moses found that the rod of Aaron “was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds” (v. 8). Moses then brought out the rods to the congregation and “they looked, and took every man his rod” (v. 10). Thereafter, the Lord commanded that Aaron’s rod be “kept for a token” in the Ark of the Covenant (v. 10), showing that the Lord had chosen Aaron and the tribe of Levi to officiate in priesthood ordinances (Numbers 18).

In this story, we see that Aaron’s rod, among other staffs, was used as an appropriate means of determining God’s will. The Liahona’s “spindles” or “directors” similarly functioned as a means by which the Lord could communicate his will. In both circumstances, the objects were rod-like in shape and had writing upon them (Numbers 17:2–3; 1 Nephi 16:29). Using sticks or arrows for divination practices was well known in many ancient societies, and God manifested his will in this manner in a number of Bible stories.⁷

Another similarity has to do with the setting. Lehi’s family found the Liahona outside his tent in the morning. Likewise, Moses had to wait overnight before he found the miracle of Aaron’s rod in the Lord’s tent or tabernacle.⁸ Finally, just as the children of Israel “looked” upon the rods to determine the Lord’s will (Numbers 17:10), Lehi and his family were commanded to “Look upon the ball” (1 Nephi 16:26; Alma 37:46–47). The injunction to “look” plays an even more prominent role in the brazen serpent imagery in the following section.

The Liahona and the Brazen Serpent

Like the pot of Manna and Aaron’s rod, the Israelites kept the brazen serpent which Moses raised up in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4–6). “After its creation,” writes Don Bradley, “the serpent pole was preserved among Israel’s Tabernacle and temple relics for several centuries until it was destroyed by Hezekiah as part of his reformist goals to eliminate idolatry from Israel (2 Kings 18:4).”⁹

One obvious similarity between the two items is their material composition. The Liahona was made of “fine brass” (1 Nephi 16:10), a fitting counterpart to the “serpent of brass” which saved the Israelites from poisonous serpents (Numbers 21:9).¹⁰ Another key similarity involves the Lord’s command to look upon each item. As seen in the following chart, Alma later alluded to Nephi’s early statements about the brazen serpent in a way that clearly connects it with the Liahona.

Thus, just as the Israelites were saved by actively looking upon the brass serpent, Lehi’s family was saved by looking upon the brass ball or Liahona.

Liahona and the Urim and Thummim

As a divinatory tool, the Liahona did more than just point the way the family should travel in the wilderness. It also revealed the word of the Lord:

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the pointers which were in the ball, that they did work according to the faith and diligence and heed which we did give unto them. And there was also written upon them a new writing, which was plain to be read, which did give us understanding concerning the ways of the Lord; and it was written and changed from time to time, according to the faith and diligence which we gave unto it. (1 Nephi 16:28–29)

The Israelite Urim and Thummim which was worn by ancient high priests was also a divinatory object.¹¹ According to some ancient traditions, it utilized divinely illuminated letters or words to communicate God’s will, much like the Liahona.¹² The Urim and Thummim was meant to be worn by the high priest when he went before the Lord into the “holy place” of the tabernacle and was to be seen as “a memorial before the Lord” (Exodus 28:29–30).¹³

The Liahona and the Stone Tablets

According to the Bible, the Ten Commandment (a sacred summary and embodiment of God’s divine laws) were inscribed upon “two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18; cf. Deuteronomy 9:10). In other words, God’s words were miraculously imprinted upon an actual physical object. These holy tablets were then placed in the Ark of the Covenant as an enduring memorial of God’s revealed law (Deuteronomy 10:1–5). As demonstrated in the previous section, the Liahona was also a physical object upon which the Lord, in some unspecified manner, miraculously inscribed his own words.¹⁴

The parallels don’t stop there, though. The Hebrew word for law in the Old Testament is torah (tôrâ), which denotes “direction, instruction.”¹⁵ The noun is derived from a verbal root that meant to “instruct, teach.”¹⁶ This corresponds to the revealed words on the Liahona, which were likewise instructive: “And there was also written upon them a new writing, which was plain to be read, which did give us understanding concerning the ways of the Lord” (1 Nephi 16:29).

Furthermore, according to Matthew Bowen, the verbal root behind torah (yry/yrh) originally had the meaning of “stretching out the finger, or the hand, to point out a route.”¹⁷ This, of course, relates to another primary function of the Liahona. Alma taught, “for behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land” (Alma 37:44).

Thus, the Liahona and the Stone Tablets were both physical objects upon which the Lord miraculously inscribed his words, and which were designed to both instruct God’s people and point them toward eternal life. As explained by Bowen, “Alma recognized that the Liahona and the word of Christ written thereon ‘pointed’ or ‘taught’ the way to Jesus Christ in the same way that the law of Moses and all the scriptures ‘pointed [their] souls’ to him and his atoning sacrifice.”¹⁸

Conclusion

As one reflects upon the relationships mentioned above, the story of the Liahona becomes increasingly more meaningful. God didn’t just give Lehi a random object to help him on his way. Rather, the Lord prepared a sacred device that was both practically useful and embedded with multiple layers of sacred symbolism. As explained by Bradley,

The importance of the Liahona in early Nephite religion has probably been underestimated. Serving as a stand-in for several relics of the Jerusalem temple and probably embodying for the Nephites God’s presence in their temple, the Liahona played a central role in Nephite religion, particularly in temple worship.¹⁹

These symbolic relationships, however, aren’t immediately obvious, especially to modern audiences. Many—probably most—readers of the Book of Mormon have likely read through its pages many times, never recognizing the complex network of figurative relationships embedded within the Liahona.

This type of multifaceted typology makes sense if God really prepared this device for Lehi and his family. It also helps explain why subsequent Nephite prophets revered this sacred object and why it was shown to the Three Witnesses along with other holy Nephite relics.²⁰ On the other hand, it is questionable whether Joseph Smith—who lacked formal education and had a limited understanding of the Bible—would have been capable of fabricating the story of this ancient relic using his own intellect and creativity.²¹

Don Bradley, The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon’s Missing Stories (Salt Lake City, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2019), 8, 148–155, 196, 203–204, 254.

 Don Bradley, “American Proto-Zionism and the ‘Book of Lehi’: Recontextualizing the Rise of Mormonism,” (M.A. Thesis, Utah State University, 2018), 89–95, 125–133.

Matthew L. Bowen, “Scripture Note: ‘Pointing Our Souls to Him,’” Religious Educator 20, no. 1 (2019): 164–171.

1 Nephi 16:10Mosiah 1:16Alma 37:38–47

1 Nephi 16:10

Mosiah 1:16

Alma 37:38–47