To assist Lehi’s colony in journeying through the great Arabian Desert and across the great seas, the Lord prepared a ball or director—what they called the Liahona, which means “compass”—the equivalent of an early twenty-first-century global positioning system. But instead of functioning through electrical power, it operated on faith and obedience.
In addition to its literal function, it had—like most gospel concepts—a symbolic function. It was a real object that typified an underlying reality. The Liahona was a type and shadow of Christ, who points the way all of us should go in life (see commentary for Alma 37:43–47). This is the first mention of the proper name of this device. We do not know the specific derivation or origin of the word.