Though the place of Sodom and Gomorrah was as beautiful "as the garden of the Lord," the people were so corrupt that neither earth nor Heaven could endure them but a little while longer. "The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners exceedingly before the Lord." (Genesis 13:13)
And, "Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination." (Ezekiel 16:49-50)
This was the iniquity of Sodom. And though Lot found the place beautiful, he found the people abominable; and his righteous soul was "vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds." (2 Peter 2:7-8)
But, "Evil communications corrupt good manners." (1 Corinthians 15:33)
And although Lot is given by the word of God the title of "just" and "righteous," yet his family was so far influenced by the "evil communications" of those wicked people, that his wife did not escape destruction, and is daughters, though they escaped, showed themselves more thoroughly familiar with the wicked ways of Sodom than with the righteous ways of their father.
"Lot's choice" was a miserable choice. Worldly prosperity is no evidence of the fear of God, but rather tends to make the naturally corrupt heart still more corrupt. Let it be the aim of all to "walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham," (Romans 4:12) that we may all be partakers with him of the same promise in view of which he ever lived and walked.--Signs of the Times, January 20, 1887--Notes on the International Lesson, February 6--Genesis 13:1-13.