The staff was a long walking stick, sometimes with a crook at the top. It was also used to count the sheep at the day’s end (see Leviticus 27:32 Ezekiel 20:37).
With it, he could defend the flock from predators. … The shepherd’s rod was a weapon, normally a piece of wood with a knob at one end. This dual role came from the world of the shepherd as pastor and defender of the flock. Tvedtnes,Īnciently, the rod was used both for correction and for gentle guidance. One possible explanation may have to do with the dual function of each symbol.
Yet some may wonder why the word of God is being connected with a rod and a sword in the first place. 3 The book of Revelation, for example, speaks of Jesus Christ as the “Word of God” ( Revelation 19:13) and then states that “out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron” (v. The fact that a number of biblical passages use similar symbolism-sometimes with both “rod” and “sword” together in the same verse-lends support to the dual symbolism found in the Book of Mormon. In this same vision, however, we find that the word of God is symbolized by the “sword of the justice of the Eternal God” ( 1 Nephi 12:18 original manuscript), 1 which has the “brightness of a flaming fire” and divides “the wicked from the righteous” ( 1 Nephi 15:30). In Nephi’s vision of the Tree of Life, he beheld that the iron rod was a symbolic representation of the “word of God” ( 1 Nephi 11:25).
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