41 And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten.

42 Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination.

43 Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.

44 For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

45 For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.

46 This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth:

47 To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.

It is interesting that anything that moves on the belly (worms or snakes), or anything with a multitude of legs (centipedes and spider), or anything that creeps on all four (rats and lizards) are pronounced unclean, and also these are the sorts of creatures that naturally cause us the most anxious when we encounter them. Things that move in weird ways discomfort us. So, too, we sometimes see people orienting themselves around identities that God has forbidden, and these are often unnerving and uncomfortable to us as well. A man with prosthetic breasts and a falsetto voice is naturally unnerving, the same as one whose face is covered in tattoos using aggressive language. God’s laws of cleanliness tell us to trust our instincts, that our intuition is there for a reason, and we should listen to it.

In verse 44 God calls us to “sanctify ourselves” and “be holy.” Yes, we live in the world, and are unavoidably tarnished by it, but we are still to strive to be different and set apart. We should stand out as those consecrated to something higher. That upward reaching is the overarching symbol in all of the laws of clean and unclean animals. All of these symbols show that we should be striving for the supreme, the transcendent, the very best that we can be. Not that it will ever make us divine on its own, but it will orient us so that we may be caught by divinity as it passes us by.