They will need to be soaked and/or cooked for a longer amount of time than is on the directions if they are older than 2 years from the best by date. However, dried beans do not loose any of their nutritional value with age, so their shelf life is classified as indefinite.
Let's talk about the law of action and reaction, this is also known as Newton's third law and this simply states that for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. So if I apply a force onto an object there's a reaction force that's applied back on the force that's been applied to it okay.
In essence, this law states that a chemical reaction always proceeds according to the ratio defined by the balanced chemical equation. This ratio always remains the same. For example, if we start with two parts methane, then we will consume four parts O2 and generate two parts CO2 and four parts H2O.