Moses Makes a Urim and Thummim

Today I read Exodus 28 where Moses is commanded and given instructions on how to build and construct the Urim and Thummim.  The Urim and Thummim has always interested me.  Partially because I am pretty good with foreign languages and since the Urim and Thummim were used to translate the Book of Mormon that is what I primarily associate their use with, but they are more than that.  This is the tool through which God communicated with His prophets.  I wonder if the tool was more for the benefit of man than any actual significance of helping God to communicate with His prophets.

What I mean is, did the Urim and Thummim actually help God communicate with His prophets somehow, or was it a placebo effect?  Was it merely the fact that the prophets had someplace to focus their attention and so it was easier to hear and acknowledge the Lord's instructions.  The mind can do fantastic things and can even convince itself of some incredible things. I have a friend whose wife many, many years ago lost her arm in a car accident.  Unfortunately through all of this she still has phantom limb pain and nothing they have tried will make it go away.  My friend however read about a therapy where using mirrors it appears that the limb is restored and in most cases the brain accepts it as a fact, even though logically the person knows the limb is still gone, but the brain acknowledges is and the pain goes away forever.  Sadly I moved away and don't know if my friend and his wife ever tried the therapy, but it is simply amazing to me how the brain can do so much. 

So that being said, was the Urim and Thummim a placebo effect where God was using it to make the prophets minds think something was going on that wasn't, or was God genuinely using the device to communicate with the prophets?  I honestly don't know.  I do know though that there have been multiple Urim and Thummims in history and that prophets have used them all throughout time.  So whatever their true use and the workings behind them, they are important and God uses them and that is good enough for me.  I'm sure I'll find out one day.  I'm really anxious to see one actually and examine it for myself.  I think that would be really neat.  Someday I will have my chance both to examine it and to find out once and for all how it works.  Until tomorrow.