Why these animals
The jackal example explains the logic best. Jackals really did dig up shallow burials; making a jackal the guardian of a cemetery was a way to turn a threat into protection, a practice known in many cultures.
It also matters that the form was not fixed. The same deity could be shown as an entire animal, as a human with an animal head, or as entirely human, depending on the era, place, and purpose of the image.
How to read it
An Egyptian image is closer to writing than to painting. The head, headdress, object held in the hands, and skin color each carry meaning and identify the figure. The image was read, not simply viewed.
That is why the figures look “wrong” from the perspective of European painting. The shoulders are turned, the head is in profile, and the eye faces forward - they show not a view from one point, but the most recognizable angle of each part.
This also calls for caution when interpreting them. The meaning of details changed over three thousand years, and what is true for one era may be wrong for another - the gap between them is greater than the gap between us and Ancient Rome.
It is also important to distinguish the animals themselves. They were not considered gods: people worshipped not a particular cat or ibis, but what the animal represented - although animal mummies were made in enormous quantities.
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Sources
- Mixed images of deities in the ancient Egyptian tradition used an animal's form to indicate its function
- the appearance of the same deity varied across eras and contexts. Egyptian art was built around showing the most recognizable angles of each part of the figure, rather than a single viewpoint