But in order to settle such intertribal disputes, two things were necessary:  first, that the surrounding Bedouin chiefs should agree to take him as their arbiter; and, secondly, that some sacredness should attach to his character, and give authority to his decisions.  Like others in those days, he was both king and priest; but he was priest “of the Most High God,”—­not of the local gods of the separate tribes, but of the highest God, above all the rest.  That he was the acknowledged arbiter of surrounding tribes appears from the fact that Abraham paid to him tithes out of the spoils.  It is not likely that Abraham did this if there were no precedent for it; for he regarded the spoils as belonging, not to himself, but to the confederates in whose cause he fought.  No doubt it was the custom, as in the case of Delphi, to pay tithes to this supreme arbiter; and in doing so Abraham was simply following the custom.  The Jewish traveller, Wolff, states that in Mesopotamia a similar custom prevails at the present time.  One sheik is selected from the rest, on account of his superior probity and piety, and becomes their “King of Peace and Righteousness.”  A similar custom, I am told, prevails among some American tribes.  Indeed, where society is organized by clans, subject to local chiefs, some such arrangement seems necessary to prevent perpetual feuds.

This “King of Justice and Peace” gave refreshments to Abraham and his followers after the battle, blessing him in the name of the Most High God.  As he came from no one knows where, and has no official status or descent, the fact that Abraham recognized him as a true priest is used in the Book of Psalms and the Epistle to the Hebrews to prove there is a true priesthood beside that of the house of Levi.  A priest after the order of Melchisedek is one who becomes so by having in him the true faith, though he has “no father nor mother, beginning of days nor end of life,” that is, no genealogical position in an hereditary priesthood.

The God of Abraham was “The Most High.”  He was the family God of Abraham’s tribe and of Abraham’s descendants.  Those who should worship other gods would be disloyal to their tribe, false to their ancestors, and must be regarded as outlaws.  Thus the faith in a Supreme Being was first established in the minds of the descendants of Abraham by family pride, reverence for ancestors, and patriotic feeling.  The faith of Abraham, that his God would give to his descendants the land of Palestine, and multiply them till they should be as numerous as the stars or the sand, was that which made him the Father of the Faithful.