It is chapters like Isaiah 6 that give the God of the Old Testament a bad name and a somewhat sinister reputation among the masses. In popular imagination, the OT God is jealous, angry, into judgment big time, wipes out whole cities, drowns armies, and all-in-all a rather nasty fellow. On the other hand, God seldom gets credit for being slow to anger and quick to forgive, and the OT God's long-suffering patience with the Hebrew people is pretty much overlooked. God's act of freeing the Hebrews from slavery and his special concern for widows and orphans (social marginals) is ignored. The deep affection the psalmist who penned Psalm 23 had for God doesn't matter apparently.
So, what do we do with a passage like Isaiah 6:9-11 where God tells the prophet to preach a message that won't be heard so the people's minds will be dulled and their senses distorted so they won't turn to God (repent) and be healed? God tells Isaiah to keep up this kind of preaching until Judah's cities are emptied and the whole nation including its land is laid waste. In other words, God intends nothing less than genocide of such proportions that even the land will become barren.
This is hard stuff, however we try to explain it. I'm not sure there is any explanation that will satisfy early 21st century readers (other than the biblical literalists) because what we're dealing with here is a view of reality crafted 2,800 years ago in a world that valued violence differently than we do now. Still, a case can be made that relative to the spiritual landscape of the age, YHWH (the God of the Hebrews) was a markedly beneficent and loving deity that did not demand child sacrifice but did command justice and called on his people to love him rather than fear him. Other gods had little concern for the poor. Other gods had to be bought off with offerings and rite and rituals, while this God said repeatedly through the prophets that such things are useless when there is no justice. Hence the prophet Micah's message that all God demands of his people is that they act justly, love kindness, and walk in humility with God (Micah 6:8).
Nonetheless, the authors of the Old Testament worshipped a God who had a violent, genocidal side. We have to accept that and insist again that not everything in the Bible is Christ-like or worthy of our faith. We put our ultimate faith in Christ not the Bible, which means we can critically reject negative aspects of the Bible while still accepting its authority under Christ and in light of Christ. Christ constrains scripture. Scripture does not constrain Christ.
But, we haven't gotten to the stump yet. Once again, stay tuned.
