When you look at the Old Testament from the view of relationship, it is not a covenant of legalism. God did not start the idea of relationship in the New Testament. This was His goal the whole time. When you read what God said when talking to the Israelites as slaves in Egypt, it is the words of a King liberating His people. The problem that Paul kept talking about in his letters is the legalistic view of the old covenant. Don’t see the OT as a covenant of legalistic rules. It is a book of freedom. The rules are to help them navigate a paganistic world. It was too hard. Jesus came to cut through it all.