history

Jesus spoke of the mysteries and how the stuff-necked and closed-minded have not been given the ability to know them.

With regard to your final example: much of the "law" is a mixture of religious traditions and man-made laws and temple practices. Some of it is plain, some of it is mysterious, some of it is bad, and some of it is fraudulent. So no one is saying every single law has to be entirely symbolic. That law in particular is intentionally mistranslated, replacing the words "a woman's lyings" with "as with a woman"; concealing the only two real viable meanings: banning either butt sex or sex with a married man (recall how "uncovering someone's nakedness" refers to sexual relations with their spouse). And that entire chapter is an altered version of the original, which was also included in the book, chapter 18, and it says nothing about putting people to death.