what's the difference

Ecclesiastes 2:12-16, "And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done. Then i saw taht wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness. The wise man's eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself preceived also that one event happeneth to them all. Then said i in my heart, As happeneth to the fool, so happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity. For there is no rememberance of the wise more than the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool."

It is important to catch the context as we continue through the chapter here. remember Solomon just got done telling us that he had not lost his wisdom, but chose to ignore it and seek after all the things of this world. What He found was that there was no satisfaction in them, and they were all empty.

Now he comes to the point that he is going, by his wisdom to to examine the fruit of his experiment. He comes to the conclusion that it doesn't matter if you are wise or a fool, if you mess with the world the outcome is the same. In other words, no one is smart enough to mess with sin and not get dirty. Fire will always burn you. Solomon finds that all his wisdom did him no good and all of his works in this world would amount to no more than the works of a fool since they both spent them in the same manner. What a sad conclusion to a life with such promise.

The truth of the matter is that unless we live our life for God our works will be just as forgotten. Yes many have lived there life for God and no one here remembers them, but in heaven there is a book where their works are written and they will be remembered by God Himself, and those who spent their lives building thing on this earth will be left with nothing, bu those who spent their life building upon the foundation of Jesus Christ will have a sure reward.