“So Curious a Workmanship”

"To an engineer, the Lord is the consummate engineer. Consequently, any mechanical product of his hands would display the same perfection of functionality, economy of design, and great aesthetic beauty that is seen in his biological creations. Furthermore, with the Lord’s knowledge of all things, the Liahona could very well utilize engineering principles completely unknown to Lehi and the great intellects of his time, or even Joseph Smith’s time, but that have become well established in our time.

"As confirmation of the expectation of exquisite workmanship and technical artistry, consider the words of Nephi: ’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’ (1 Nephi 16:10). Alma, who later possessed this sacred artifact, adds his perspective: ’And behold, there cannot any man work after the manner of so curious a workmanship. And behold, it was prepared to show unto our fathers the course which they should travel in the wilderness’ (Alma 37:39).

"Nephi describes the internal construction as there being ’within the ball … two spindles’ (1 Nephi 16:10). Then the text goes on to specify the functionality of one of those spindles: ‘and the one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness’ (1 Nephi 16:10).

"What was the function of the other spindle? How were these spindles arranged? What was their range of motion? Why only two, not one, three, or more such spindles? Before these questions can be answered, it is important to identify one additional feature required of this device: ’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’ (1 Nephi 16:28).

“It is clear from this and other references that to the mortal observer (Nephi, Lehi, Laman, Lemuel, etc.), the Liahona not only provided directional information, but also indicated explicitly whether or not that information could be relied upon­-whether faith was sufficient or not for the device to operate correctly.” (Robert L. Bunker, FARMS: Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, Fall-1994, pp.2-3)