The biblical narrator often reports the actions of the characters without giving explicit moral evaluations of those actions. That leaves plenty of room for readers to second guess the characters.
For example, in Genesis 12:1 God instructs Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you."
Verse 4 reports Abram's response: "So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him." Abram was certainly obedient in leaving his country. But in taking his nephew Lot along, had he really left his kindred and father's house behind?
Abram and Lot later part ways after disputes between their herdsmen make it advisable for them to separate. It is after that separation that God affirms the promise of the land to Abram (Ge 13:14-18).
In a 2011 paper in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament ("Rethinking the Place and Purpose of Genesis 13") scholar Dan Rickett suggests that the timing of this promise is not a coincidence. After Lot's departure, Abram has complied fully with the directive of Genesis 12:1.
We are not told why Abram brought Lot along in the first place. By the time that Abram left, we know that Lot's father Haran had died (Ge 11:27-29), and apparently Abram's father Terah had also died (Acts 7:4). Perhaps Abram felt responsible for Lot.
One midrash proposes that Lot insisted on going along with Abram, as Lot's descendant Ruth later would with Naomi (Ruth 1:16-17). At that point, according to this proposal, Lot wanted to be Abram's disciple. In this scenario Abram was justified in bringing Lot along on his journey.
But those who adopt this scenario then have to explain the later parting of the ways between Abram and Lot. For example, Joseph Soloveitchik proposes that something changed during their time in Egypt. When they came out of Egypt with greater wealth, Lot may have become more interested in growing his fortune than in blessing the nations, leading to his separation from Abram.
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