Thanks, sometime times my best ideas don't come to mind after coming back from work at midnight.
I think your point is correct, that logically it appears that God does not only desire the repentence of sinners, not only because there are explicit examples where God does not want it like here, Isaiah 6 and John 12; but also because logically it makes no sense. Even if we believe in an "omnipotent" God that cannot violate free will because of some sort of imaginary gentleman's pact with man or something like all the non-Calvinists do, can't an all powerful God draw greater attention to Himself to bring about repentence? WHy doesn't He appear to all of us like He did to Paul? WHy doesn't He crush Satan, like, yesterday? Why doesn't He have angels come talk to all of us like COrnelius? Clearly, the will of God CANNOT be to encourage all men to repent just that observation alone.
However, tossing and turning in my bed, I thought of the following: why CAN'T God truly desire the repentence of ALL men including the non-elect AND the elect? Logically, we desire conflicting things all the time without being hypocrites. For example, I can desire to drink coconut flavored coffee every day. However, at the same time, I also desire not to be up all night and get addicted to coffee. I hold both desires simultaneously. Eventually, my will decides upon a decision in which best corresponds with my desires, and at some points, forcing me to choose one over the other (i.e. only drinking coconut flavored coffee sometimes).
So, what I posit is, we can understand that God wants all men to repent (2 Peter 3:9) and all men to be saved (1 Tim 2:4). However, He at the same time wants to make His mercy increasingly apparent by putting up with vessels of wrath (Rom 9:23, 24) and He blinds their hearts so that they will not repent and be healed so that they may be judged for their sin (John 12:40).
I think it is safe to say that the Scripture is safe to say that not all men are really saved, though God desires it, yet at the same time the Scripture is clear is that the way God works is that He does not have the same degree of mercy on all. If this be the case, there is no contradiction. God has competing, non-contradicting desires, like we do. He, in His perfect wisdom, love and justice chooses just the right choice. Apparently, it IS what we see now.