Are God's blessings for obedient believers always material?
No. Scripture shows obedience brings God's blessing, and He will not bless total rebellion, but blessing is not guaranteed to be financial or material. Obedience, giving, and prayer do not make a believer a millionaire; God's blessings can be spiritual rather than material.
Les explains that Israel's prosperity was always based on spiritual obedience, and that pattern was typical of Israel's history. When they were obedient to the Word of God, they were blessed and ascended among the nations of the Middle East, which brought David's kingdom and Solomon to their height. When Israel became disobedient, they went down until they realized they needed the God of Abraham, and He brought them back up. Les says that up to a point this is valid today: God will not bless a believer who is in total disobedience and rebellion. But he also insists he cannot teach that if you are obedient, give, pray, and do certain things, God will make you a millionaire. The analogy is that if we are obedient, we can expect God's blessings, but not necessarily always in the material. Verse 8 is another admonition pointed particularly to the Jew under the law, yet lessons can still be gathered from it.
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.